Polina CupceaAurelia didn’t close an eye all night. She kept imagining the next day events. She was writing a script in her mind, then another one, and so on. None had a concrete ending. She wanted to cry, but she resisted. „I have to be strong.”
At the first light of dawn, Aurelia and her husband, Liviu, could no longer stay in bed. They were impatient, but also excited. They got up, dressed, checked the package again, and quietly walked out of the house. Their friends were waiting outside for them in the car.
At seven o’clock they were in Varnita, a village on the right bank of the Nistru river controlled by the constitutional authorities in Chisinau. 10 kilometres away is the city of Bender, and over another 10 kilometres, on the other bank of the river – Tiraspol, the so-called capital of the ‘Pridnestrovian Moldovan Republic’ (‘rmn’), a region internationally recognized as a territory of the Republic of Moldova but de facto under the occupation of the Russian Federation.
They parked in front of the City Hall, where Svetlana Breslaveț, a lawyer from the Transnistrian region, was waiting for them. The exchange took place quickly. Aurelia and her friend, Natalia, got into the lawyer’s car. The men stood there, quietly watching’ them departing. „I am blacklisted by separatists, and I cannot go to the left bank of the Nistru,” Liviu explained later.
There was a deafening silence in the car. „What could we talk about?” says Aurelia now. About half an hour later, the car parked in front of the so-called „Ministry of State Security” („mgb”) in Tiraspol.
„I got out of the car and read what was written on the building. Afterwards, the lawyer waved at me: she no longer needs me, and I should go back. It was like I was at a demonstration. The investigator was waiting for Svetlana near a bench in front of „mgb”. Only then I got scared. I thought, God, why did I come here? Natalia was also perplexed. I wanted to tell her, but she passed me a note that said: Shut up. No one said a word,” Aurelia recalled the scene.
Moments later, the lawyer got into the car and, without explanation, skipped out of here. Less than 10 minutes later, she left the two women in front of Penitentiary no. 3 in Tiraspol, where the preventive detention facility is also located.
The woman found it all scary, because…
…she had never been to Tiraspol before.
…she had never visited someone in jail before.
…she had never sent a parcel to a detainee before.
She felt she was overwhelmed, but she had only one option: move forward and not miss the meeting she had been breathlessly waiting for four months.
She entered the building, followed by a guard. Tremble. „Emotions of shock.” Checking the parcel was followed with screams and humiliation:
– Sho za bardak? Tî ceo, ne znaeshi kak nujna? (What’s this mess? Don’t you know the Russian language?)
– Izvinite (sorry), stammered the woman.
„Mivina” noodles and tea, panties and t-shirts, toothpaste, and toothbrush, all were throwed in the middle of the room, on the floor. She was about to cry, but the woman could not afford this luxury. She did not want to show that she was weak and that the representatives of the Tiraspol regime could bring her down so easily.
Several persons watched the scene somewhat astonished. They had been through it too. „Good thing you didn’t have candy with jam, they made you open each one,” they encouraged her. They helped her collect things from the floor and put them back in the package.
It was overwhelming and unbearable, Aurelia says. She had gone outside for a breath, although the August heat had dried up every trail of wind and freshness. She no longer knew what to do and what the next steps would be. She stood as she stood bewildered, helpless, full of fears that she might miss the meeting, when she heard a cry from behind. A guard waved to her to get in.
In the parcel room, the same lady, the same latticed window, but this time her voice was a bit calmer. She recorded her package without further incident. „Why did she humiliate me? I think she had orders from above,” now Aurelia finds an explanation.
The guard led her down a narrow corridor. She felt her knees soft, and her heart cracked in her chest. When the door of the meeting room opened, Aurelia searched for a 34-year-old man, slender about two meters and sturdy, and she could only see tables separated by thick glass.
At one of them stood a woman and roared in the receiver, and on the other side, a man listened attentively. At the next table, Aurelia spotted a haggard man, dressed in a thick coat, unshaven, and with the cap on his eyes. „There was no one more. The other tables were empty,” she recalls.
A seafaring knot stopped in his throat. She approached the table of the haggard man. The wanted to cry, but Aurelia held tightly the tears. With trembling hand, she picked up the receiver. The man stared at her earnestly. She looked at him too.
The woman understood very well that she did not have much time and that the minutes were running against the clock, but she still could not find the strength to say anything. „I had lost my speech.” A thought flashed through her: „Aurelia, be brave. He needs your support. That’s it, you’re going to cry when he’s free.” She sketched a forced smile and and uttered as quickly as she could, so that tears would not play a trick on her: „Hello, my dear. How are you?”
The man, dressed in August in a winter coat, whose sleeves covered his ragged fingers, and with the face covered in scars and bruises hidden under the cap, answered her:
– All is well, Mom! Don’t worry about me.
– Take off your cap so I can see you well.
– Mom, but do you need it?
– Vlad, why do you look like this?
– It’s ok, Mom. I’m fine.
Suddenly, a guard yelled at them: „Na ruskom govorite! Na ruskom!” (Speak in Russian! In Russian!) „I speak Russian, but what if I didn’t speak it?” the woman asks now.
The conversation with his son, with whom she had not spoken or not seen him for several months, lasted about 15 minutes and was abruptly interrupted by the same guard. „This was my first visit. We had a second one in October 2022 and that’s it. It’s been 19 months since he’s in prison in Transnistria.”
***
On Monday, April 4, 2022, Vladimir Dudnic woke up, as usual, at 6.00 am. He had breakfast – very sweet coffee and a local cigarette – and went to Bender with some personal chores, taking a minibus from Chisinau.
„He works in Tighina, army officer, but at that time he was on sick leave. His blood sugar had risen,” says Liviu, the young man’s father.
Around noon, Aurelia recalls, she received a call from her son, which seemed strange to her. „He had never called me before when I was at work. As a rule, we talk in the evening and in the morning,” explains the woman.
– Mom, are you still busy?
– No, I’m going home. Why?
– Nothing, just ask. I’m in Varnita, I’m having coffee with some acquaintances.
– Okay, let’s talk tonight.
Usually, Vladimir came home around 9 p.m. After divorcing years ago, he had been living with his parents for some time. They usually had dinner together in the kitchen, then Vladimir had coffee and chatted with his mother until 11 p.m. But on that Monday, Vladimir didn’t make it to dinner or coffee. „He didn’t answer to my phone calls. We thought maybe he was with his concubine, who lives in Bender,” his father recalls.
The next day, both Liviu and Aurelia called their son numerous times, but the voicemail kept “saying” that the phone was disconnected. And in the evening, at 18:18, the Telegram channel of the so-called „Ministry of Internal Affairs„ (‘mvd’) of the Transnistrian region announced that „they detained Vladimir Dudnic, resident of Chisinau”, who is suspected of fraud.
The news, posted by several news sites on the left bank of the Dniester River (1, 2, 3), read: „On March 31, a resident of the city contacted the police in Bender and said that, last August, she paid Vladimir Dudnic 2,000 Transnistrian rubles (about 115 euros – ed.) to help her prepare faster the documents of citizen of the Republic of Moldova. However, he did nothing and soon stopped communicating with her.”
Vladimir’s parents learned about their son’s detention from his concubine, whom they called intensively on April 6. „That’s absurd. How can Vladimir do such a thing? Excluded! I never thought this could happen to us. Yes, I was reading about people kidnapped and illegally detained in prisons in the Transnistrian region, with fabricated files, but I didn’t think it was true,” his father confesses.
In 1992, Liviu fought in the Dniester War, working for years in Moldova’s law enforcement institutions. He says he has friends in the police and army, so he turned to old colleagues to help him get his son out of the hands of the Tiraspol regime, but also to understand why his son is imprisoned.
To begin with, they went to the Bender Police Inspectorate. „I am blacklisted by separatists because I fought in 1992,” Liviu explains. „So, on April 7, we had a green corridor from Varnita, together with my wife, and thus we managed to reach our police in Bender.”
Once there, they wrote a request asking law enforcement to find out where their son was. After 10 days, the inspectorate informed them that Vladimir Dudnic was detained in the so-called „preventive detention facility” in Tiraspol.
At that time, Vladimir had already been „charged” with fraud, i.e. stealing another person’s property by deception, committed by a group of people, by prior agreement, an offense for which the so-called „penal code” of „rmn” foresees for up to 5 years in prison.
***
Vladimir is the only son of the Dudnic’s family. He was 4 years old when his father went to war. One day, when Liviu stopped by to get some things, Vladimir went to the door, shouting that he would not let him go, because he would be killed. „The husband pushed him aside and walked out. The next day (June 20, 1992) he was seriously wounded. I went with Vlad to his hospital”, says Aurelia. 12 years later the woman understood that Vladimir that the war had it mark on Vladimir.
„The opening of the memorial in Serpeni was being prepared and there was an announcement that whoever among the students wrote the best essay about the Second World War would be invited to attend the inauguration of the monument. We don’t have anyone who fought in World War II, I told the boy. „I know, but I want to write an essay about daddy in 1992.” God, what an essay he wrote! He won first place in the city and went to Serpeni…”
After finishing high school, Vladimir wanted to pursue a completely different profession, but it was his father who told him that he should go to army. „We wanted the continuity of the military dynasty,” Liviu explains. The man now regrets being too harsh on his son, but says: „I didn’t beat him, but I was severe. I educated him in the Spartan style: the bed made, the clothes put back on, to be educated, and so on. […] I wanted to give this country a good citizen.”
The boy accepted his father’s suggestion, but when he graduated from the Military Academy, he announced that he was going to work in Cahul. „[I] arranged for [him] to work in Chisinau and be as close to us as possible… I understood that he wanted freedom”, whispers Liviu.
In Cahul Vladimir met his wife. But their marriage lasted only a few years. „They have a 10-year-old daughter together and, on weekends and holidays, she stays with us. She’s a beautiful and special little girl,” the man praises her.
From Cahul, his parents say Vladimir was deployed for about three years in Cosnita, in peacekeeping troops, where he „trained soldiers in term”. Then he went through several military units and centres in Chisinau, in parallel doing master studies at the University of Physical Education and Sports.
His last job that we managed to identify from public data is a military unit subordinated to the General Inspectorate of Carabinieri of the Ministry of Interior. He was hired in 2018.
***
On Monday, April 4, Vladimir was in the parking of the Linella store in Varnita village, his mother says, when a stranger in his 40s, dressed in civilian clothes, approached him and asked him in Russian:
– Hi! Are you Dudnic Vladimir?
-Yes…
– You’re coming with us,” the guy added, and with the help of two other men, they forced him into a car.
After 10 minutes, Vladimir was at the headquarters of the militia in Bender, from where he was later taken to Tiraspol. „He was not allowed to notify those at home… They kidnapped him from the territory controlled by the constitutional authorities of the Republic of Moldova,” Aurelia said.
And the way things unfolded after the abduction was beyond the expectations of parents. „I didn’t expect our authorities to react like this,” says Vladimir’s father, as rolls of white smoke from his mouth and nose. He puffs on a cigarette and trembles with anger. He believed that his son would be released quickly, that law enforcement institutions would react promptly, „that Moldova cares about its citizens.”
In April 2022, the law enforcement officials informed them that „in the actions of the so-called ‘employees’ of the force structures of the Transnistrian region, the constituent elements of the offense provided for by the Criminal Code of the Republic of Moldova persist” and that „the accumulated materials were transmitted to the Criminal Investigation Section in Bender for investigation in all aspects, complete and objective of all circumstances of the case„. For almost two months, Liviu and Aurelia knew nothing about their son: kidnapped from Varnita village, arbitrarily arrested and illegally held in prisons on the left bank of the Dniester, where inhumane conditions and torture are a normality (1, 2, 3).
They started sending requests to institutions in Chisinau related to their child’s case, informing them about the situation and asking for help. From some they received evasive answers, from others – „this is not in their competence”, while others assured them that the case is being investigated, but „there is still no cooperation with the Transnistrian forces”, says Liviu.
They also wrote to the so-called „authorities” on the left bank of the Dniester, who refused to provide details about the accusations against Vladimir but informed them that he did not complain about the detention conditions and that his health condition was „satisfactory”.
In the meantime, they contracted a lawyer from Causeni, but later they hired Svetlana Breslaveț, the lawyer from the Transnistrian region. They praise Svetlana, saying that she visited Vladimir, sent him medicines, as well as arranged their two visits. She would have even obtained the annulment of some accusations, but she did not present them any evidence, „because the bosses do not allow her”, says Liviu.
„Really, we have no idea what’s going on there, because none of us have access. Just what the lawyer tells us, whom we try to believe. Initially, [Vladimir] was accused of fraud, that he contributed to concluding of documents for acquiring Moldovan citizenship, but during his stay, other accusations were added, including related to constructions. Some craziness. The lawyer has so far debated four of the eight accusations. We paid money to the so-called victims, but Svetlana said witnesses had never seen Vladimir.”
One evening in May 2022, the Dudnics for the first time, saw a ray of hope. Aurelia connected the TV and watched a TV show that discussed „how serious is the real situation regarding the observance of human rights on the left bank of the Dniester, the inefficiency of the actions of constitutional authorities and international organizations involved in the Transnistrian conflict settlement process.” Among the guests was the director of the Promo-LEX Association, a non-governmental organization from Chisinau that militates for the development of democracy, including in the Transnistrian region.
A few days after the show, Vladimir’s father met Pavel Cazacu, a Promo-LEX lawyer. Together they submitted a repeated request to IP Bender, and on June 30, 2022 they were notified that the criminal case initiated on the fact of the kidnapping of Vladimir from Varnita was sent to the Bender Prosecutor’s Office, „with the proposal not to initiate criminal prosecution and close the criminal trial, because the act does not meet the elements of the crime„.
New requests to the Prosecutor General’s Office followed, which, only on November 29, 2022, informed the Dudics that already in May, „the prosecutor of the Bender Prosecutor’s Office, Oxana Tapu, ordered the non-initiation of criminal prosecution and the closure of the criminal trial in April 2022„, explains Cazacu.
Assisted by Promo-Lex, Liviu filed a complaint with the General Prosecutor’s Office, expressing his disagreement with the prosecutor’s decision. However, on January 27, 2023, Vitalie Bișleaga, interim chief prosecutor of Bender municipality did not identify „any grounds for setting aside the order not to prosecute” and maintains it in force.
In both cases, the prosecutors’ motivation was as follows: „During the examination it was established that Dudnic Vladimir committed a series of scams on the territory of the Transnistrian region of the Republic of Moldova, which were framed in accordance with the legislation of the Transnistrian region.”
„The citizen was kidnapped. According to the law, you shouldn’t start criminal proceedings?”, points out Pavel Cazacu indignantly. „And, as a constitutional body, you know that he is illegally deprived of liberty in the Transnistrian region, because any detention that takes place on the left bank of the Dniester is illegal. These crimes: kidnapping, illegal deprivation of liberty, ill-treatment are provided for by the Criminal Code of the Republic of Moldova, but what do ours do? Not only they do not prosecute, but they suspend, recognizing, on top of that, the laws of Transnistria.”
„We are fighting on two fronts,” Liviu Dudnic describes the situation. „On the one hand – with our authorities, who officially tell us they can’t do anything and really do nothing. On the other hand – with the separatists, who do not release my illegally detained son. No one helps me. We knocked on every door possible.”
Two weeks later, Liviu and Pavel went to court: „We consider both orders issued on this case to be illegal and contrary to international human rights standards. In addition to the fact that procedural errors were identified, which affected the efficiency of the criminal process, they were poorly motivated: Committing alleged series of scams, which would have been framed according to the legislation of the Transnistrian region.”
„Why do Moldova’s constitutional law enforcement bodies legitimize and recognize the so-called Transnistrian legislation? Why are the abusive actions of illegal structures legitimate and justified?” they ask in the complaint filed in court.
And on March 16, the Anenii Noi Court forced prosecutors to resume the criminal trial and correct the identified violations. „Many said it is a utopia to win the case against our authorities. I did not expect such joy either, after all the fights with the law enforcement bodies of the Republic of Moldova”, says Aurelia serenely.
***
The resumption of the trial ordered by the court does not necessarily mean that Vladimir Dudnic’s case will take a completely different turn. This is suggested by the statistics of the last 20 years on similar cases.
The data provided to the Oameni si Kilometri newsroom by the Ministry of Internal Affairs show that such cases no longer reach the judges’ table and, respectively, victims no longer get justice.
In the last 20 years, 78 cases of kidnapping committed by representatives of unconstitutional force structures were registered – 4 were sent to court, and in the other cases either the criminal investigation was suspended (73%), or it was closed or terminated.
Pavel Cazacu notes that in this case the state has more positive obligations than in other cases of kidnapping, where they occur on uncontrolled territory. „Politicians always have this excuse, that we do not control the left bank of the Dniester, but in this case, Vladimir was kidnapped from the controlled territory. This is serious. Because anyone can be kidnaped from here and taken to the Transnistrian region. How do you, as a state, insure? Your people are not safe! You didn’t prevent and what are the mechanisms?” the lawyer asks rhetorically.
We tried to talk about this case with representatives of different authorities. The answers we received are somewhat similar: the case is being monitored, every effort is being made to release Vladimir Dudnic, within the limits of competences, obviously, and Tiraspol remains uncooperative.
Parliamentary Committee on National Security, Defence and Public Order
In February 2023, the Secretariat of the Commission for National Security, Defence and Public Order notified the competent national authorities for the immediate initiation of the necessary measures considering the national legislation in force and the regulation of the reintegration process. Direct contacts with the so-called Tiraspol structures is carried out only through the Bureau for Reintegration Policies.
The Commission, together with the members of the Special Parliamentary Commission for Monitoring and Parliamentary Control on the Implementation of Moldova’s Reintegration Policy, will continue, within its competences, to monitor the Dudnic Vladimir case, as well as other similar cases.
Prosecutor’s Office of Moldova
In April 2023, the Bender Prosecutor’s Office ordered criminal prosecution under Art. 164, para. (2), letter e) of the Criminal Code, on the fact of alleged illegal actions admitted in relation to cet. Vladimir Dudnic, manifested by his abduction from the territory of the village Varnita, Anenii Noi district, and transportation of the named in Tiraspol.
At the same time, I inform you that BPR is the only channel between Chisinau and Tiraspol, the mechanism being established in the process of negotiations on the Transnistrian settlement.
It should be noted that complaints received by prosecutor’s offices on alleged illegal acts (torture, kidnapping, etc.) always form an object of investigation within the limits of possibilities, given the lack of effective control of constitutional authorities in the Transnistrian region.
Bureau of Reintegration Policy (BPR)
The Office immediately referred the matter to the competent authorities for the necessary measures to be ordered in the light of the provisions of the national legislation in force. Through the dialogue channel established in the negotiation process, the political representative from Tiraspol was asked to unconditionally release Dudnic V. from illegal detention and respect his rights, including healthcare. As in other cases, the response received from Tiraspol was evasive.
The only institution subordinated to Chisinau that managed to visit Vladimir Dudnic in prison was the People’s Advocate (PA). He admitted that the young man’s right to liberty and security, to a fair trial, etc. had been violated, but „the available instruments of PA cannot be applied in the region, and the role of protecting human rights belongs to the state of the Republic of Moldova.”
„The role of the Ombudsman is to monitor the actions or inactions of the State in the case and to remind the authorities of its international commitments to protect human rights, […] even in the absence of effective control over the Transnistrian region”, remarks Ceslav Panico, Ombudsman in his reply to Oameni si Kilometri.
***
Aurelia feels that high blood pressure is weaking her, but she wants so badly to see her son, and she is afraid of missing the visit. She collects the tea packets and „Mivina” scattered on the floor and puts them in her bag.
This is the second time she has been in the parcel room of the preventive detention facility in Tiraspol, and she is again assaulted and humiliated. The first time she admits that maybe she didn’t pack things properly, but the second time she couldn’t fail. Still, they asked her to unpack everything, even though the coffee was sealed. „They didn’t do that with the rest,” the woman recalls.
The high blood pressure finally took its toll and Aurelia fainted. She woken up in a chair, where several people who also came to deliver packages dragged her. „I was praying that they would allow me to see my son. I was very afraid that I had exceeded the time, because the visit time is calculated from the moment, they check your package.”
– Vlad, dear, it’s took longer…
– I know, Mom. I know everything.
– Vlad, everything is scattered in the package…
– I know, Mom. They opened the door for me and let me look at you. I’ve seen it all: how they throw away your goods, how you have…
– Well, it is ok. You know I have high blood pressure. I am ok.
– Mom, you must trust me and know that I’m not guilty. Everything will be fine.
They also discussed about his daughter, the case and the lawyer. Vladimir confided that they tortured him for the first few months so badly that he had a black leg from the sole to the hip and that he was not receiving any medical assistance. ‘If there is hell on earth, mother, I was there. The handcuffs had reached my bone, and I was suspended with my hands up,” the woman recounts the son’s words.
Aurelia looked at her son with indescribable pain. „Only I know how I kept myself from bursting into tears,” she says.
– Mommy, I miss being with you in the kitchen and drinking coffee…
The son’s words squeezed her heart like a vice.
– Me too, whispered the woman, throated by the tears that stood ready to gush.
Previously, „in the evenings we drank coffee [together]. And I was angry…”, Aurelia explains now, without holding back her tears. But she does not let them reach the beard, she wipes them with the palms of his hands. „I was upset that I had to get up at half-past four at work, but he wanted to talk until 11 pm. On my face I didn’t give that I was angry and that I wanted to sleep… I’d like to get mad now,” the woman laments.
At the end of the visit, to brighten her up, Vladimir tells her in a joking tone: ‘Mom, if it is easier for you, I am in Ilie Ilascu’s cell in Glinoe‘ (Penitentiary No. 1 in Hlinaia, Grigoriopol district – ed.).
***
In 1997, when Moldova ratified the European Convention on Human Rights, the Moldovan government reneged any responsibility for „acts committed on Transnistrian territory„, citing the lack of de facto jurisdiction over the region and, respectively, its „impossibility to ensure compliance with the provisions of the Convention” in the so-called „rmn”.
But seven years later, the European Court of Human Rights concludes: „Even in the absence of effective control over the Transnistrian region, Moldova still has a positive obligation […] to take diplomatic, economic, legal or other measures within its power and in accordance with international law to ensure to applicants their rights guaranteed by the Convention.”
It happened in Ilascu and Others v. Moldova and Russia, the first of its kind in the history of the country and the one that established the degree of responsibility of the Chisinau authorities for violations of the Convention in the Transnistrian region. Thus, the Court found that, along with Russia, Moldova violated several provisions of the Convention, including Article 3 (Prohibition of torture) and Article 5 (Right to liberty and security).
13 years later, the Strasbourg Court reached practically the same conclusions in Braga v. Moldova and Russia, and two years later, in Negruta v. Moldova and Russia and Filin v. Moldova and Russia. As a result, it finds again that Moldova violated Article 3 (Prohibition of torture) and Article 5 (Right to liberty and security).
BRAGA v. MOLDOVA AND RUSSIA (2017)
On 28 July 1999, the applicant was arrested in Ribnita and subsequently sentenced by the ‘Camenca district court’ to five years’ imprisonment. Initially, he was serving his sentence in Penitentiary nr. 2 from Tiraspol, but on October 25, 2001, he was transferred to the Pruncul Penitentiary Hospital in Chisinau.
A lawyer from Chisinau asked the authorities to release him, as well as seven other people who were detained in the Pruncul Penitentiary Hospital on the grounds that they had been convicted by the „rmn” courts, but without success.
On 21 November 2001, all eight detainees, including the applicant, were transferred back to ‘rmn’ prisons. On 22 January 2002, the applicant was released from prison based on an amnesty.
Moldova is found guilty of violating Article 3 (Prohibition of torture), Article 5§1 (Right to liberty and security), as well as failing to fulfil its obligations under Article 34 of the Convention (Individual Claims) and ordered to pay EUR 3,000 as non-pecuniary damage and EUR 1,000 as costs and expenses.
NEGRUTA V. MOLDOVA AND RUSSIA (2019)
The applicant was detained on 14 June 2011 in Chisinau. Rezina was handed over by officers of Moldova’s National Anticorruption Centre and then handed over to so-called „representatives of militia bodies” in the Transnistrian region. On the left bank of the Dniester, he was indicted and sentenced to four and a half years in prison. On 27 October 2014, the applicant was released.
Moldova is found guilty of violating Art. 3 (Prohibition of torture), Art. 5§1 (Right to liberty and security) and Art. 1 of Protocol No. 1 (Protection of property) and ordered to pay the applicant EUR 5,600 for non-material damage and EUR 700 for costs and expenses.
FILIN V. MOLDOVA AND RUSSIA (2019)
On the evening of 25 March 2009, the applicant was at home in an apartment in Chisinau when three persons rang the doorbell. They allegedly presented themselves as Moldovan policemen and invited the applicant to follow them to the police station. At first, the applicant allegedly accepted, but later tried to resist because he had noticed Transnistrian registration plates on the car in which he ended up being forcibly boarded.
Half an hour later, the applicant called his wife and informed her that he was at a ‘police station’ in Dubasari, in an area controlled by ‘rmn’ structures. And on 21 October 2009, the ‘Dubasari Court’ of the ‘rmn’ declared the applicant guilty of participating in an armed robbery in the Transnistrian region and sentenced him to eight years in prison.
Moldova is found guilty of violating Article 3 (Prohibition of torture), Article 5§1 (Right to liberty and security) and Article 13 (Right to an effective remedy), combined with Article 3, and ordered to pay the applicant EUR 8,000 for non-pecuniary damage and EUR 800 for costs and expenses.
***
But what these three causes still have in common is that they all refer to the transfer of people to Transnistrian force structures or the passivity of constitutional authorities to abuses committed by ‘rmn’ representatives on the right bank of Moldova, Promo-LEX lawyers point out.
Their detailed analysis also shows how the investigation of illegalities committed by Tiraspol representatives ends up having practically the same fate – criminal prosecution ceased „due to lack of constituent elements of crimes”, forcing prosecutors in court to resume the case, and, finally, suspending the criminal investigation „due to the impossibility of identifying the persons who could have been charged”. This was the case in similar cases in the following years.
And there are similar cases on the table of judges in Strasbourg that are still awaiting their verdict. It is about the resounding case of Adrian Glijin, kidnapped on October 7, 2020, from a field near Cuzmin, Camenca district, and accused of „treason”.
Also in Strasbourg, on December 26, 2022, Promo-LEX lawyers also sent Vladimir Dudnic’s case, in which they invoked the violation of the same articles 3 (Prohibition of torture), 5§1 (Right to liberty and security), as well as 13 (Right to an effective remedy). „In this case, the law enforcement bodies not only refused to initiate criminal prosecution and, respectively, promptly carry out the necessary criminal prosecution actions, but, through inadmissible formulations, legitimized and justified the actions of the Transnistrian structures,” they reason.
„The fact that the state does not control that territory does not mean that you should not make maximum effort to help these people. And when a person is kidnapped from the left bank, how do you help the person there? How do you investigate the case? How do you influence his fate in order for him to be released? In our case, it’s something else. Citizens are kidnapped from the right bank, from the territory controlled by constitutional authorities,” Pavel Cazacu points out.
***
Pavel Cazacu also considers that law enforcement officials have enough legal levers to act and he expresses his bewilderment that most cases of kidnapping and illegal deprivation of liberty are suspended at the criminal investigation phase, on the grounds that „either they do not identify the people who kidnap people, or, if they do, they do not find them.”
He says that there are a lot of cases when people from the so-called „rmn” involved in kidnappings, illegal deprivation of liberty or inhuman and degrading treatment, including the so-called „militiamen”, „investigators” or „judges”, walk freely in Chisinau, own properties on the right bank of the Dniester or even cross the river to request their documents as citizens of the Republic of Moldova.
This is also the case of Andrei Samonii. In 2015, as a collaborator of the so-called „militia commissariat” in the town of Camenca, de facto controlled by the „rmn”, together with two other people crossed the Dniester, kidnapped a couple from the village of Vertiujeni, Floresti district, and transported him to the Transnistrian region.
A year later, the militiaman „relieved himself from office”, and in the autumn of 2019 he crosses the Dniester to issue his identity card and passport as a citizen of the Republic of Moldova. A few months later, when he returns to collect the papers, he is detained and shortly afterwards charged with kidnapping, trespassing and torture.
He initially received 15 years in prison. Subsequently, however, he was exempted from the charge of torture, „on the grounds that the defendant’s act does not meet the elements of the crime„, and at the one of violation of domicile he is released from criminal responsibility, „on the grounds of expiry of the limitation period„. Thus, 6 years only for the kidnapping of two people. However, the sentence is not yet final, and the Supreme Court of Justice will repeatedly analyse it.
Already behind bars, the former militiaman from the left bank of the Dniester complained in the courts on the right bank about detention conditions affecting his rights guaranteed by Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, „requesting the establishment of inhumane detention conditions and reduction of sentence”. In the end, he got a reduction of the 519 days. Earlier this year, he also obtained a partial amnesty.
Ruslan Lungu, former chief prosecutor of Bender, who worked for a decade (2011-2021), admits that most of the criminal cases initiated following the kidnapping of people by Tiraspol regime had no effect, but this is explained by the fact that the Chisinau authorities do not control this territory and suggests that the political component plays a much more important role than it might seem.
„We will not be able to solve the Transnistrian conflict with the help of the prosecutor’s office. […] This is not just about a criminal who has committed a crime. This is a very serious problem of our country – the existence of a regime that controls 12% of the country’s territory, and there is nothing we can do. This problem must be solved at the state and military level, in the sense of state security. Only now, more than 30 years after the 1992 conflict, have they decided to criminalize separatism?”
The former prosecutor refers to the amendments made earlier this year, when notions such as „Anticonstitutional entity” (art. 134/23) or „Illegal information structure” (art. 134/24) were introduced in the Criminal Code, and „separatism” (art. 340/1) was criminalized, for such actions being provided a maximum penalty of 12 years in prison.
The unrecognized authorities on the left bank of the Dniester were directly targeted by the new provisions, considering that they „create grounds for politically motivated prosecution of almost all inhabitants” of the so-called „remn”. But „Transnistria does not accept criminal procedural blackmail from Moldova”, they hastened to announce.
However, Ruslan Lungu believes that no matter how null and void these criminal cases may seem, the Tiraspol regime does not like the accusations, because when they lose power and have to flee, they should not be announced in the search, because they need to keep in touch with the rest of the world.
„In 2015, there was a case when the son of a [so-called] interior minister [of ‘rmn’] was detained in Greece on a case of ours – kidnapping people, and stayed in a room with CIS descendants with thieving traditions. And they didn’t like him at all, but the Greeks didn’t change him to another cell, because the Transnistrian authorities are nowhere recognized. He came back very unhappy. That was a good lesson for them, because de facto, criminal cases that they considered ineffective were quite effective and can hit very hard.”
„After that, they started at every 5+2 meeting, at each working group, to address the subject of criminal cases against representatives of Transnistrian law enforcement bodies. Having not won in the negotiations, in the meantime more people have started to come to us, they have amended their law, according to which appeals to the law enforcement bodies of the Republic of Moldova are criminally sanctioned,” says the former prosecutor.
***
Aurelia recalls that during a hearing in Bender, a lawman told her that they would catch those involved in the kidnapping of her son Vladimir, but first they had to retire. „Now we can’t, because there will be conflict. We know who they are anyway…’
„Should I wait until they retire? Well, when will it be? When will granddaughter get married? And until then, does my son have to rot in separatist prisons?” the woman is indignant.
„On October 3, the limitation period expired. Their criminal code foresees that a person cannot stay in custody for more than 18 months. And we thought they were going to release him, but they prolonged this period. There was a court hearing in October, but they postponed it…. I also thought that ours would do everything possible to free him, but…”, sighs Liviu.
Hope is all they have. And the belief that their son, who has already spent a birthday behind bars, will soon come home. Until then, they send parcels and communicate through censored letters. When Vladimir was transferred from Hlinaia prison to Tiraspol prison, he sometimes even manages to call them.
„He categorically forbade us to come and visit him. He is afraid that the separatists will harm us to pressure him. We are not heard by anyone in Moldova except Promo-LEX. And how many more cases are covered up?” asks Aurelia.
“Mommy, daddy hello!
I am fine. I am in Tiraspol.
I may be taken to Glinoe again on Monday.”
***Updated on 10.22.2024***
On August 15, 2024, the Reintegration Political Bureau (BPR) announced on its official page that „the citizen of the Republic of Moldova Dudnic Vladimir, who was deprived of his liberty on April 4, 2022 by the security forces, was released from illegal detention in Tiraspol”.
The young man’s reunion with his family also happened in Varnița, just one kilometer from the place where he had been kidnapped. It was brought by car from Tiraspol by Veaceslav Ursu, the BPR representative. „We took the niece with us, but we didn’t tell her that she was going to see her father. I didn’t know for sure if they would release him or not”, says Liviu Dudnic, the boy’s father.
„When Liviu got out of the car, Iana looked at her father and asked me: Who is that man? Only after a few moments she realized that this is Vlad, her father,” rewinds the memories Aurelia, Vladimir’s mother.
We met with Vladimir a week after his release. He’s a tall guy with watchful eyes. He says that he only sleeps few hours per day and that every noise, no matter how small, makes him startle. „Reflex formed in the 2 years and 5 months of prison,” he explains.
He told us about the moment of the kidnapping, which he says he has continuously rewound since April 4, 2022, and which only happened because he had too much confidence in himself.
Then, about how he was tried for some acts he says he didn’t commit, and the so-called „judge” was more interested in his military career and studies than the acts he was accused of.
About how they tried to make him admit that he is the organizer of the attack with grenade launchers on the „mgb” headquarters in Tiraspol, an incident that occurred on April 25, 2022, while he was already in the prisons on the left of the Dniester.
About how he didn’t even get an ointment to treat his wounds from the beatings, and about the bucket who served as a toilet that he changed every few days, and about the 6 square meter cell with a palm-sized window where he sat alone for two years.
But his return home did not result in any positive response from the Moldovan authorities either. Our state does not have medical, psychological or even legal recovery for this category of victims. Which means that once they are released, the people who were illegally deprived of their freedom by the representatives of the so-called force structures in the Transnistrian region are on their own in every way.
Dumitru Mereacre, the Promo-LEX lawyer who represents Vladimir Dudnic for free, requested that the file be transferred from the Bender Prosecutor’s Office to the Anenii Noi Prosecutor’s Office, to ensure that the law will be respected and those who kidnapped him be held accountable. This is after, previously, the Bender Prosecutor’s Office ordered the non-start of the criminal investigation and the termination of the criminal trial in the case of the kidnapping of the young man, and the court forced the law enforcement officers to resume the trial.
However, on September 19, 2024, prosecutor Viorel Găină from the Anenii Noi Prosecutor’s Office ordered the suspension of the criminal investigation, because he did not identify the persons who can be charged. „We gave the names of the people who kidnapped Vladimir. They are in the documents as those who detained him”, the lawyer wonders indignantly.
Following the interview held on October 16, 2024 with Sergiu Russu, the deputy chief prosecutor of the General Prosecutor’s Office, in which I asked about the evolution of the file initiated in the case of the kidnapping of Vladimir Dudnic, we were informed, in the same day, that the ordinance of the Anenia Noi Prosecutor’s Office of September 19, 2024 was cancelled, and the criminal investigation – resumed.
“Until a new suspension order? We’ll see,” lawyer Dumitru Mereacre comments in disbelief on the announcement.
Illustrations – Daria Rusu
Editing and contribution – Nicolae Cușchevici