Translator’s note: Transnistria (also known as the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic) is an “unrecognized” state in Eastern Europe. Transnistria’s people proclaimed independence from Moldova in 1992, rejecting the capitalist counter-revolution in the USSR and abandonment of Soviet norms. The Communist Party of Transnistria has been a leading political organization in the republic since its founding.
In 2016, oligarchic forces seized control of the state. The new authorities banned the traditional May Day demonstration this year. In response, communist leader and member of parliament Oleg Horzhan called for a protest rally in the central square of the capital, Tiraspol, on June 2. The government organized provocations and arrested many people. On June 6 Horzhan was stripped of his parliamentary immunity and arrested.
Free Oleg Horzhan!
Hands off the Communist Party of Transnistria!
Behind Horzhan’s sentence – the regime’s fear!
By Communist Party of Transnistria
On November 2, the Supreme Court of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic rendered a sentence that was fantastic in its vileness and cruelty in a politically-motivated criminal case fabricated by the ruling regime against the opposition deputy of the Supreme Soviet Oleg Horzhan.
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| Transnistrian Communist leader Oleg Horzhan after his sentencing Nov. 2. |
Despite the fact that the judges were forced to admit the majority of the acts of which Horzhan was accused were lies of policemen or fabrications of the employees of the Investigative Committee, they sentenced the Transnistrian Communist leader to almost the maximum possible under Art. 315 h. 1 term — 4 years and 6 months of imprisonment and a fine under Art. 316 of the Criminal Code of the PMR.
In particular, even under the control of the authorities, the court recognized that the shoulder straps lost by the policemen in the confusion are not a reason to accuse a person of “violence” against a representative of the authorities. Especially, if a person is completely innocent of this.
In addition, the puppet court was forced to acquit Oleg Horzhan on one of the episodes associated with the alleged “violence” against a policeman. In a hastily version of the incident, during the trial a number of blatant were revealed that the judges had no choice but to recognize the Communist leader as innocent of the charge.
However, the order of the authorities to eliminate their political opponent obviously had to be carried out, and therefore, in the second episode, the court did not stint on the punishment, although the only fault of Oleg Horzhan on this charge was that he bumped into a police officer who suddenly got in his way on the premises of the police department. According to the “victim,” he experienced “physical pain,” although no injuries were found in his forensic examination. It was this episode that the court regarded as “violence against a representative of the authorities” and imposed a sentence of 4 years 6 months of imprisonment in a penal colony.
For an alleged “insult” of the Minister of the Interior Ruslan Movy, he was sentenced to a fine.
Despite the harsh, politically motivated decision of the court, Oleg Horzhan told his supporters that the authorities would not succeed in breaking him, and he would continue the fight against the anti-people regime both in prison and after it. The lawyers, in turn, announced that in the near future they would appeal the unjust sentence.
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