February 12: The Riscani sector court in Chisinau, Moldova, is deliberately delaying consideration of the merits in the case of the Petrenko group political prisoners.
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| Graphic: SouthFront |
This was reported to OMEGA News Agency by Ana Ursachi, attorney for the political prisoners. Moreover, according to the lawyer, presiding Judge Oleg Melnychuk was unable to appoint a replacement for Judge Ursu due to the fact that the “other judges are all sick.”
“There is no doubt that such actions are taken solely to delay the trial, and thus continue to illegally keep in prison those who dared to tell the truth about [oligarch Vlad] Plahotniuc,” said Ursachi.
The attorney also noted that every effort will be made to conduct the trial on time, “because the trial schedule should not be dependent on Ursu.”
Earlier it was reported that the same Ursu had refused to reconsider the decision against allowing well-known European deputies to be guarantors for the release of the political prisoners, rejecting their offer to appear personally in court.
Guarantees were presented by the head of the faction of the United European Left (GUE / NGL) in the European Parliament Gabi Zimmer; head of the faction of the United European Left in PACE and deputy of the Senate of the Netherlands Tiny Cox; MEP Helmut Scholz and Bundestag Deputy Andrej Hunko of Germany.
Grigory Petrenko, leader of the opposition party Our Home is Moldova (Red Bloc), former MP and honorary member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, was among seven protesters forcibly detained by police following protests in front of the Prosecutor General’s Office and an attempt to set up tents on the sidewalk in front of the institution for an ongoing peaceful protest against the oligarchic regime.
Translated by Greg Butterfield
Red Star News + Translations 