Moldovan non-governmental organizations, Amnesty International Moldova, the Center for Policy and Reforms, Promo-LEX Association and the Human Rights Embassy, have signed a statement condemning the actions of the organizers of the October 26 demonstration of the “Shor” party in front of the Prosecutor General’s Office (PG). According to them, “the actions went beyond the established legal framework and were committed with malicious intent to block the premises of a public institution”.

“Thus, on 26 October, during the speech and at the urging of the organizers of the meeting in front of the Prosecutor General’s Office, namely I. Shor (online) and D. Turcanu, a group of people tried to set up tents on the thresholds and in front of the entrance doors to the Prosecutor General’s Office. The group was behaving aggressively and did not react to police requests not to block the entrance to the public prosecutor’s office. The actions of the organizers apparently encouraged the group of aggressive persons, without fulfilling the obligation to maintain public order and cooperate with law enforcement agencies.

According to Article 16 (1) of the Law on Assemblies, the organizer must ensure access to the buildings in the immediate vicinity of the venue of the assembly. At the same time, according to Art. 21 (1) in conjunction with Art. 8 and Art. 18 of the Law on Assemblies, the organizers of the assembly are obliged to react to any deviation from the peaceful character of the assembly. In case of appearance of forbidden elements he is obliged to remove them together with the police. By definition, it is forbidden for the organiser of a meeting to be the generator of situations of violation of public order, an action which will outlaw such a meeting,” reads the statement published on the Promo-LEX website.

In the context, the NGO representatives note that the space in front of the PG was sufficient to hold the meeting peacefully, and “the actions taken by the group of aggressive persons were apparently aimed at destabilising the peaceful nature of the meeting”.

“Following the protest, reports emerged that several journalists had been threatened with physical violence for their actions in transmitting footage of the protest. According to Article 17 of the Law on Assemblies, the access of the press and any person recording the assembly cannot be restricted. Moreover, we will also mention the special protection of journalists in the situation of transmitting information from the place of public meetings, as well as the criminal sanctions for intimidation and limitation of their activity. We note that the very nature of peaceful assemblies implies the free choice of participation. Participants have the right to decide whether or not to attend a meeting. Coercion to participate in a meeting is an offence under Article 184 of the Criminal Code.

Last but not least, we draw attention to the obligation of the local public authority to assist the organisers and intervene when deciding on actions such as stopping or dispersing meetings. The failure of the representative of the public authority to participate in such meetings indicates a lack of will on the part of the local public authority and a mandate for intervention by the law enforcement bodies. In order to rule out any speculation as to the arbitrary or other nature of the police/carabinieri actions, we consider it imperative that the local public authority representative be present at the meetings,” the statement added.

The signatory organisations:

• Condemn the actions of the organisers of the meeting of 26.10.2022 – I. Șor (online) and D. Țurcanu to block access to the public institution – the Prosecutor General’s Office of Moldova;
• Condemns the actions of some participants in the meeting to assault journalists;
• condemns actions to coerce participation in public meetings;
• urges the organisers of the meetings, representatives of the local public authority and the police/carabinieri to cooperate with a view to holding peaceful and civilised meetings;
• Calls on the police and prosecutors’ offices to investigate allegations of attacks on journalists.