The Orhei Court Ruled in Favour of the Driver in the Case of ‘Cuvantul’ Newspaper. Members of the Editorial Team Want to Know Why the Newspaper Copies Were Seized

Orhei Court, based in Rezina cancelled, on 14 January 2019, the decision of the Rezina Police Inspectorate and stopped the contravention proceeding initiated against the employee of the printing house from Rezina, Ion Panfilii, in the case of ‘Cuvantul’ newspaper. The editorial office awaits the decision of the court on the seizure of the newspaper copies.

We remind you that on 10 May 2018, Ion Panfilii was transporting by his personal car the print run of ‘Cuvantul’ newspaper from the printing house to the Central Post Office from Rezina when he was stopped by the policemen. They seized newspapers and fined him with MDL 3.000, on the basis of Article 265 of the Contravention Code, for ‘purchasing, keeping, transporting tangible assets for illegal sale’.
‘The court ruled in favour of the driver who transported the newspapers. The editorial office awaits the decision of the court on the seizure of the newspapers too’, Tudor Iascenco, the Director of the weekly newspaper told Media-azi.md.

The journalist argued that the decision to file a complaint to the court about the seizure of the print run of ‘Cuvantul’ newspaper was made after the editorial board realised that the requests submitted to the prosecutor’s office and the internal investigations conducted by the the Police Inspectorate had no result.
‘Although some of the police officers were suspended from their duties for a month following an internal investigatio, they were reinstated later’ said Iascenco.

According to the Director of the newspaper, the District Court that the editorial office filed a complaint with concerning the seizure of the newspaper by the Police, refused to investigate the case. ‘They argued that the GPI is located in Chisinau and not in Rezina. Then, we went to the Court of Appeal, which sent the file back to the Rezina Court. This happened at the end of the previous year and we received the materials before the New Year. The date of the hearing was not set so far’, informed us Iascenco.

Tudor Iasenco is also skeptical about how the investigation on this case was conducted by the Police, because, according to him, the representatives of the editorial office were not heard in the file. The Director of ‘Cuvantul’ newspaper said that the Police intentionally seized the print run, at the order of district leadership to intimidate the journalists that made various pieces of information about the abuses and ‘millions of lei that were illicitly used by the local public authorities’.