The European Court of Human Rights recently notified the respondent Governments on the case Şcvarcenco v. Moldova and the Russian Federation (application no. 45464).

Dumitru Şcvarcenco, a Ukrainian citizen, detained in a “prison” in Tiraspol, complained to the High Court citing violations of his rights under Article 3 of the European Convention, inhuman and degrading conditions of detention, Article 5, illegal arrest by Transnistrian “authorities”, and Article 13, lack of effective remedy regarding his complaint under Article 5. More information on this case can be found on the ECtHR website here.

The Promo-LEX Association repeatedly drew attention to the poor detention conditions in the Transnistrian region. There are three institutions for execution of sentence under the control of the Tiraspol administration, and the number of persons held in preventive detention isolators remains unknown.

According to Human Rights Report 2012-2013, the high rate of persons in detention per 100,000 population compared with the capacity of detention facilities raises many concerns, which was also noted in previous reports of Promo-LEX. Analyzed statistical data show that 563 out of every 100,000 people in the region are in detention. For comparison, the ratio of detainees held in in prisons under the jurisdiction of the constitutional authorities is of 188 for every 100,000 people, while the EU average, as of 2013, is 129 people.

You can find more detailed descriptions of the conditions of detention in Transnistria in articles by Human Rights Without Frontiers International, written with the support of Promo-LEX, here.

For details contact: Alexandru Postica, Promo-LEX Program Director, lawyer. tel: (22) 450-024, GSM: 069-104-851, email: [email protected].