The European Court of Human Rights has notified the Moldovan and the Russian governments of two other cases of human rights violations in the Transnistrian breakaway region of Moldova. These are Alexandru Coliban and Valentina Drovorub, both Moldovan and Russian citizens. The Promo-LEX Association lawyers, an association providing free legal aid, represent the plaintiffs in front of the court.

The first case of Alexandru Coliban, a citizen of Moldova and Russia, refers to the Tiraspol district’s administration. The authorities detained Alexandru Coliban illegally after he brought criticism to one of the candidates for the so-called president of the self-proclaimed Transnistrian region. Alexandru was also detained in inhumane prison conditions (poor sanitary conditions, lack of ventilation space, overcrowding, poor daylight access, lack of food and drinking water), and inadequate medical care.

The plaintiff complains of two violations of Law – 3rd Article mentioning the detention conditions and insufficient medical care and articles describing the illegal detention for actions that could not be considered offenses.

In the second case, Valentina Drovorub, a dual Moldovan and Russian citizenship owner reported her son’s death in one of the prisons in the Transnistrian region of the Republic of Moldova on 1 November 2013.

The applicant alleges violating two European Convention on Human Rights Articles concerning insufficient medical care provided to her son while detained in a Transnistrian, followed by his death.

Given that so far, the European Court of Human Rights calls on the Moldovan and Russian governments to provide the Court with tangible information. Even so, as of July 2010, Russia no longer exercises effective control or decisive influence over the self-proclaimed structures in the Transnistrian region.

Moreover, the ECtHR requests the governments of Moldova and Russia to express their views on the legitimacy, independence and impartiality of the functioning of the so-called Transnistrian courts, including the Constitutional Court, established on June 12, 2002.

Furthermore, the ECtHR requests the parties involved to provide information on the violation of Articles 1, 2, 3, 5, 10, and 13 of the European Convention on Human Rights, in the cases concerned. To answer these questions, the Court invited the two Governments, in particular Russia, to use the available diplomatic channels and means for collecting the information requested from the so-called Transnistrian judicial institutions and communicating them to the Court.