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As of the 16th of June 2010, a young woman from the city of Bender is being held hostage by the Transnistrian militsia in Bender, on the grounds that her mother failed to meet an investigator.

While undergoing treatment in the cardiology department of a medical center in Chisinau, the girl’s mother, Mrs Zinaida Ciuhnenco, was informed by an investigator from the station of the militsia in Bender that her daughter would remain in ‘detention’ so long as the mother did not come back to Transnistria to face criminal punishment. The investigator also added that her daughter was ‘arrested’ for some days by personal decision, a period during which she – Mrs Zinaida Ciuhnenco- should ‘present’ herself at the militsia station.

The daughter is ‘detained’ in inhumane conditions in the basement cell of the militsia station in Bender. Before going to the militsia station, having been invited, the daughter, Elena Dobroviţcaia, told her mother by phone that she felt very ill, and had a temperature, but that she would nevertheless go to the militsia to avoid any problems later. After that, her daughter having been gone for longer than expected, the mother telephoned the ‘investigator’ to ask about her. The investigator conditioned the release of Elena Dobroviţcaia upon the mother’s freely presenting herself at the militsia station. What is more, the husband of Elena Dobroviţcaia has disappeared, and nobody knows his present whereabouts. Today, the 17th of June 2010, Elena Dobroviţcaia should have taken her final graduation exam at a school in Tiraspol.

Mrs Ciuhnenco is desperate, and is revolted by the actions of the force structures of the Transnistrian region, which, through methods of blackmail, abduction, torture and intimidation, are threatening to condemn her, even by involving her children.

The Promo-LEX Association, in the interests of the young woman Elena Dobroviţcaia (born 1990), requests the urgent involvement of the constitutional authorities, the Russian Federation, the European Union, Ukraine, the United States of America, and the OSCE (as actors in the 5+2 format), and also of other competent international bodies. We REQUEST;

prompt and concrete actions in defence of the fundamental rights and liberties of Zinaidei Ciuhnenco and Elenei Dobroviţcaia, and;
the unconditional release of the young girl from her private detention in the militsia station in the Transnistrian region.

To the constitutional law bodies we REQUEST that a criminal case urgently be opened, under art. 280 of the Penal Code (taking of hostages), and art. 166 of the Penal Code (illegal deprivation of liberty).

Legal Department,
“Promo-LEX”
17 June 2010