The court refused to release the “Petrenko Group”

The judiciary board left the ex-delegate, honorary member of PACE [Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe] Grigory Petrenko, and his colleagues under detention pending trial.

Moldova is a small Eastern European country, which signed “The Moldova–European Union Association Agreement”. Today, notorious oligarch Plahotniuc seized power in the country. Corruption and theft of public funds have become the hallmark of the current Moldovan regime. Neither the US nor EU cannot do anything with it or do not wish. There are political repressions in the country. Several months ago ex-delegate, honorary member of PACE Grigory Petrenko and his colleagues were detained. Untill now they are in custody without any charges brought.

© Sputnik/ Мирослав Ротарь

Originally appeared at SputnikMD, translated by Carpatho-Russian exclusively for SouthFront

The Metropolitan Court of Ryshkanovka on Monday rejected the inquiry from lawyers regarding release from detention pending trial of members of the “Grigory Petrenko Group”, despite opposition protest.

Thus, the judiciary board left the ex-deputy, the honorary member of PACE Grigory Petrenko, and his colleagues under detention pending trial.

“This is not a court. There are no justifications for my detention. These are not just the demands of those protesting, but also the demands of international organizations”, Petrenko in the courtroom after the announcement of the decision.

Release of the “Petrenko Group” is one of the demands of the left opposition – the Party of Socialists, Our Party, and the right-centrist DA platform (“Dignity and Truth”), which have already for half a year carried out protest actions  in Kishinev. Earlier the Moldavian judicial authorities refused to allow Eurodeputies to become guarantors in exchange for release of the political prisoners.

Guarantees were presented by the head of the parliamentary party Union of the European Left (GUE/NGL) in the European Parliament, Gaby Zimmer; head of the parliamentary party Union of the European Left in PACE, deputy of the Senate of Holland Teenie Cox; deputy of European Parliament from Germany, Helmut Scholtz; and the deputy of the Bundestag, Andrej Hunko.

Several members and activists of the opposition extra-parliamentary party of Moldova “Red Bloc”, led by the former deputy, honorary member of PACE Grigory Petrenko. were placed under detention pending trial on September 6, 2015 after a protest before the building of the Prosecutor General’s Office. The Office of the Public Prosecutor brought a criminal case  on the occasion of mass riots. According to the investigation, the seven detainees “organized, directed, and actively participated in illegal actions, did not obey the lawful appeals of the representatives of the authorities, and also employed physical force, using a number of objects as a weapon”.