January 12: Honorary member of PACE Grigory Petrenko was invited to participate in the January session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.
The invitation was sent on behalf of the Group of the European United Left Alliance in PACE.
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| Political prisoner Grigory Petrenko in court. Photo: Omega |
Earlier, it was reported that at the initiative of this group, PACE adopted a statement demanding the immediate release of the Petrenko Group political prisoners. Also, on the initiative of PACE deputies, head of the PACE Monitoring Committee Stefan Schennach was urgently dispatched to Moldova, where he inspected the conditions of detention of the political prisoners. Despite assurances from the authorities on the improvements for the detained political prisoners, after Schennach’s visit their conditions only deteriorated.
Grigory Petrenko, leader of the opposition party Our Home is Moldova (Red Bloc), former Member of Parliament and honorary member of PACE, was among seven protesters forcibly detained on September 6 by police after protests in front of the Prosecutor General’s office and an attempt to set up tents on the sidewalk in front of the establishment for an ongoing, peaceful protest against the oligarchic regime. All have remained imprisoned since September 6, 2015.
Translated by Greg Butterfield
