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The European Court of Human Rights informed the defendant governments on the case of Elena DOBROVITCAIA (Case File 41660/10).

On 16 July 2010, Elena was “summoned” as witness by representatives of the militia. Later, when she appeared at the militia station, she was detained on the grounds that her mother, Zinaida Ciuhnenco, did not comply with a subpoena of the militia. Mrs. Ciuhnenco was targeted in a criminal file, but at that moment she was undergoing treatment in the cardiology department of a medical center in Chisinau. She was informed by telephone by a so-called investigator from Bender that her daughter would be detained until she returns to the Transnistrian region to serve a “criminal sentence”. For more details please click here.

Elena had been detained for three days in the basement of Bender militia station in inhuman conditions. Her release was conditioned on her mother’s return to the region. The graduation examination of a pre-university institution that Elena had to pass on 17 July was replaced by a traumatic experience of being kept hostage in a militia station.

“The domination of impunity in the Transnistrian region for serious violations of the fundamental rights and freedoms is one of the reasons that such cases of arbitrary deprivation of liberty occur. “Any administration, either de jure or de facto, shall be bound to observe the human rights and shall be made accountable for its actions”, Alexandru Zubco, Promo-LEX lawyer, declares.

*Conversation of Zinaida Ciuhnenco with the “investigator” from Bender, where she asks for the release of her daughter.

In her application to the European Court of Human Rights against the Republic of Moldova and the Russian Federation, Elena Dobrovitcaia  complained under Article 3 of the Convention (torture and inhuman and degrading treatment used during detention period). In addition, the applicant invoked the violation of all paragraphs of Article 5 (Right to liberty and security), Article 8 (Right to respect for private and family life) and Article 2 of the Protocol No 4 of the Convention (Freedom of movement).

The applicant is represented before the High Court by lawyers and attorneys of Promo-LEX Association.

For more details, please contact: Carolina Bondarciuc, Promo-LEX Press Officer: GSM 060280980, Tel/Fax (+373 22) 450024, e-mail[email protected]