On 1 December 2015 in Athens a regular court session was held on extradition or release of Maksim Kuzmichev, an officer of the PMR’s MIA.
Let us remind that the citizen of the PMR Maksim Kuzmichev was arrested on 20 July 2015 in Athens as the Republic of Moldova put him in the international wanted list.
During the court hearing the Greek judicial authorities decided to refuse the extradition of Maksim Kuzmichev to Moldova and then he was officially released.
Currently, the Pridnestrovian militiaman is in the capital of the Russian Federation – Moscow.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the PMR officially expresses its gratitude to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the OSCE Chairmanship and the OSCE Mission to Moldova for four and a half months of efforts aimed at protecting the legitimate interests of the Pridnestrovian citizen and at his release.
The Foreign Ministry of the PMR presumes that the decision of the Greek court, made on the basis of a wide range of documents and materials submitted by the Pridnestrovian side, is a convincing legal evidence of Maksim Kuzmichev’s innocence. The refusal to extradite Maksim Kuzmichev to Moldova shows illegal, politically motivated, contrived and frame-up nature of his prosecution in the Republic of Moldova.
The PMR’s MFA underlines the groundlessness of some recent statements by the political representative Victor Osipov that there as he said to be no politically-motivated prosecution of Pridnestrovians in the Republic of Moldova. We believe that the independent and objective judgment by the authorities of the Hellenic Republic – the cradle of modern European democratic traditions and principles, the European Union member-state – proves unfounded, biased and legally void character of the criminal cases against Maksim Kuzmichev opened in the Republic of Moldova.
The Foreign Ministry of the PMR welcomes that supported by international partners it became possible to avoid political violence against the citizen of Pridnestrovie. In particular, the Greek authorities had taken into account reasonable concerns of Pridnestrovie that if extradited Maksim Kuzmichev could be subjected to torture and degrading treatment.
In this regard, the PMR’s MFA once again calls on the Moldovan side to abandon innuendoes, unfair interpretations and attempts to justify, including in the media, its use of criminal tools for pressure on Pridnestrovie.
The Pridnestrovian side once again proposes to return to the interaction towards ending politically motivated criminal cases initiated in the Republic of Moldova against officials, businessmen and ordinary citizens of Pridnestrovie.
The Foreign Ministry of the PMR emphasizes that the last working meeting of experts on cessation of criminal cases took place more than six months ago. During this time the Pridnestrovian side twice appealed to the RM with a proposal to hold the next such meeting, as well as called for an end to politically motivated criminal cases at various venues and in the official correspondence, but was refused.
The PMR’s MFA hopes that the release of Maksim Kuzmichev in full accordance with democratic norms and standards of the legislation of the Hellenic Republic will serve as a catalyst for the intensified work to stop criminal prosecution on the principles of transparency, reciprocity and reasonable compromise.
