Amnesty International Report 1994 - Moldova

The situation of 15 people on death row remained unclear. Six political prisoners in the self-proclaimed Dnestr Moldovan Republic (DMR) faced a trial that appeared to fall short of international standards of fairness. One of them was sentenced to death. In January parliament defeated a proposal by President Mircea Snegur to hold a referendum on unification with Romania. This issue had provoked tension with the DMR which, unlike other parts of Moldova, had not been historically part of Romania. The DMR, which is not recognized internationally, continued to consolidate its own parallel government structures during the year. Moldova acceded to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in January. In May it acceded to the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their 1977 Additional Protocols. As of February, 15 prisoners under sentence of death had not been executed as the country lacked its own executioner and facilities (see Amnesty International Report 1993). They were all still on death row at the end of the year. The trial of six people arrested by the DMR authorities in 1992 opened in April. Ilie Ilascu, Alexandru Lesco, Tudor Petrov-Popa, Andrei Ivanoc, Petru Godiac and Vladimir Garbuz were charged with murdering two DMR officials and planning other violent political acts during the period of armed conflict between DMR and Moldovan forces in 1992. Earlier, charges had been dropped against a seventh man, Stefan Urîtu (see Amnesty International Report 1993). At least four of the men had been members of a party supporting unification with Romania. All the defendants except Vladimir Garbuz refused to recognize the jurisdiction of the DMR and denied the charges, withdrawing their confessions and claiming that they had been made after beatings, threats and intimidation. At least one defendant had previously described being refused access to a lawyer of his own choice for almost two months, during which time he was allegedly subjected to a mock execution on four occasions. Three of the charges against them carried a possible death sentence. The trial concluded in December, with guilty verdicts against all six. Ilie Ilascu was sentenced to death, and the others received terms of imprisonment of from two to 15 years. Amnesty International sought further information about people under sentence of death in Moldova, and continued to urge that all death sentences be commuted. The organization called on the DMR authorities to take all necessary steps to ensure that Ilie Ilascu and his co-defendants received a fair trial. It also urged them not to impose the death penalty in this or any other case in the territory they control and to commute the death sentence passed on Ilie Ilascu.