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Recently, the European Court of Human Rights informed the Governments of Moldova and Russia on the case Cebotar v. Moldova and the Russian Federation, file no. 46367/10.

The applicant, Anatol Cebotar, is a citizen of Moldova and is Ukrainian by ethnic origin. He was born in 1968 and lives in the village of Ternovca, which is controlled by the Tiraspol administration.

In 2008, the applicant worked as an investigation officer in Ribnita. On 15 May 2008, he was arrested on suspicion of fraud. Subsequently, a judge from Ribnita ruled to extend his preventive detention for an indefinite period of time. Under this mandate, the applicant was detained in the basements of preventive detention facilities of the eastern region for 17 months. In 2010, the supreme court in Tiraspol convicted and sentenced the applicant to imprisonment for 10 years with confiscation of property. The applicant was detained in prison no.1 in Hlinaia until 1 August 2012, when he was released by a decree of the Tiraspol leader.

The applicant claimed before the European Court that, while innocent, he has been sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment with confiscation of property by a Transnistrian court, which lacks jurisdiction under in Article 6 of the Convention, and that he had been denied a fair trial, contrary to the same provision. The applicant also complained that, contrary to Article 5 of the Convention, he was detained by persons who did not have that jurisdiction, that his detention lacked a legal basis and was ruled by an unlawful court decision, and that the preventive measure was applied for an indefinite period of time.

Cited Governments are invited to respond to the alleged violations before 11 October 2013.

The applicant is represented in Court by lawyers from Promo-LEX.

More details on the statement of facts are available here.

For more details, please contact: Alexandru Zubco, lawyer at the Promo-LEX Association:
tel: (22) 31 09 45, GSM: 069 667 234, email: [email protected]