According to the diplomat, the prosecution of Pridnestrovian citizens initiated by Moldova has become the method of “reprisals” against foreign policy opponents.
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the PMR Dmitry Palamarchuk was the guest of the morning broadcast of the Radio 1. The main topic of the conversation, which was also attended by Deputy Chairman of the Investigative Committee of the PMR Valery Tsukov, was the practice applied by Moldova of initiating politically motivated criminal cases against Pridnestrovians.
As noted by Dmitry Palamarchuk, at the moment the Prosecutor's Office of Moldova initiated more than 200 politically motivated criminal cases against Pridnestrovian citizens mostly - against representatives of the authorities of the republic under articles “arbitrariness” and “exercise of assumed rights in an arbitrary manner”.
“In fact, the mechanism is very simple. If the Moldovan side did not like the activities of any of the Pridnestrovian officials, respectively, a statement of some Moldovan citizens appears, who allegedly were somehow offended by that official, and a criminal case is initiated. That is, it is obviously that the grounds are absolutely far-fetched,” said the diplomat.
During the meeting, Deputy Foreign Minister stressed that it is possible to solve this problem only in a constructive manner in the framework of the existing negotiation mechanism, however, the Moldovan side continues the existing negative practice to dodge meetings with Pridnestrovian counterparts.
“The negotiation process is, in fact, the third legal framework in which contentious issues should be resolved. In this part Pridnestrovie's position has never changed, we stand for simultaneous termination of criminal cases on the basis of reciprocity, based on the “all to all” technology. To set to this rather complicated work, it would be possible to start with a moratorium on the initiation of new politically motivated criminal cases, with a clear transparent exchange of lists of criminally prosecuted persons and exclusion from international search within the CIS and Interpol of those Pridnestrovian citizens who are under prosecution in the Republic of Moldova. Pridnestrovie has long been ready for this work, moreover, we have already given our list to the Moldovan side during the April working meeting of experts in 2015. Unfortunately, in spite of the existing agreements, we have received a response, and Moldovan colleagues continue to dodge the dialogue. Therefore, we call on them to come to the negotiating table with us in a businesslike manner and aiming at the result to begin discussion of the problem with the involvement of all the relevant competent professionals, especially representatives of the RM General Prosecutor’s Office, because this is not yet possible to achieve even it,” said the Deputy Minister.
Touching on the high-profile event, happened to a citizen of the PMR Vyacheslav Venersky, Dmitry Palamarchuk said that the court decision of the neighbouring country on this case is “plainly stamped” and allows to speak about actually legal nihilism of judicial authorities of Moldova.
“I want to note that for us, for the Pridnestrovian society it is a reason to stick together, because now the Moldovan side is trying “surgically” to invade our jurisdiction, to influence psychologically somehow, administratively on our people. And, perhaps, the Moldovan side should realize all the risks of this situation, because the Pridnestrovian society in the cohesive and energetic configuration will become a sufficiently difficult negotiator for Moldova,” concluded the diplomat.
