Jun 07, 2007

Gagauzia: Still No Trial for Political Prisoner


Following the release of the two last political prisoners in Transdniester, Moldova has failed to do the same. Gagauz human rights activist Ivan Burgundji remains detained, now without trial for almost a year.

Following the release of the two last political prisoners in Transdniester, Moldova has failed to do the same. Gagauz human rights activist Ivan Burgundji remains detained, now without trial for almost a year.

Below are extracts from an article written by Karen Ryan and published by The Tiraspol Times:

CHISINAU (Tiraspol Times) - After Tiraspol released the last two prisoners which Moldova had called "political prisoners", Moldova is failing to do the same.

Two opposition politicians are still languishing in Chisinau jails, awaiting trial while their health is failing. Both of them have been defended by U.S. State Department officials, but to no avail.

In one case, an opposition politician and human rights lawyer from the Gagauz minority was arrested on trumped-up charges and is held incommunicado. Ivan Burgudji had sought safe haven in Tiraspol, Pridnestrovie, but was taken into Moldovan custody by armed men as he left the unrecognized country to vote in an election in Comrat, Moldova, last year.

Meanwhile, another member of the opposition - Valeriu Pasat - is also kept in Moldovan jail as a political prisoner. E. Wayne Merry, a former State Department and Pentagon official, has publicly called the Pasat case "a travesty of justice".

" - This Soviet-style political trial was in reality designed to squelch political opposition," says E. Wayne Merry, while also calling all charges against Pasat "entirely bogus."

[…]

Ivan Burgudji persecuted for political beliefs

Ivan Burgudji was arrested as he went to cast his vote in Gagauzia's December 2006 elections for governor. A leading figure in the Gagauz community, he had urged voters to cast their vote for the opposition and not endorse the candidate supported by Moldova's Communist Party President Vladimir Voronin. No warrant was presented and no formal charges were pressed at the time of his detention.

The irregular arrest - which a local Gagauz witness likened to a "kidnapping" - took place in Ciadir-Lunga, the second largest city of Gagauzia and Ivan Burgudji's birthplace. Representatives of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, OSCE, were unable to prevent the arrest or secure the release of Burgudji.

This is not the first time that Ivan Burgudji has been the target of arbitrary arrests and torture. The United States raised his case in the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna over a similar 2002 incident when he was "taken into custody, held incommunicado, and presented with an arrest warrant only after the fact," according to the U.S. State Department.

These actions "do not meet our definition of the Rule of Law or basic international standards for the rights of the accused," said Deputy U.S. Chief of Mission to the OSCE Douglas Davidson.

Despite U.S. intervention, Moldova continued the practice. Ivan Burgudji's health is deteriorating and family members fear that he will die while in illegal custody.

On 2 June and 4 June 2007, Transdniester's authorities released the last two remaining prisoners which Moldova claimed had been jailed for political reasons. Romanian/Moldovan unification nationalists Andrei Ivantoc and Tudor Petrov-Popa had previously been convicted for their role in the murders of two PMR state officials.