My son was convicted groundlessly

The head of the Armenian diaspora in Moldova Venera Gasparean said her son David Davitean, who was arrested last autumn, was convicted groundlessly as he is innocent, while the criminal case was started by order. The woman said both the prosecutors and the judges who have connection with this case committed a series of illegalities. Venera Gasparean called on President Igor Dodon to become involved and order an independent inquiry.

In a news conference at IPN, Venera Gasparean said her son was arrested in the absence of evidence and is held in a cell located in the penitentiary’s basement. Even if the Rascani District Court ordered to drop the case that involved David Davitean, this was resumed and was referred to the Centru Court, where her son’s right to a fair trial was violated.

According to Venera Gasparean, during many months David had no meeting with his family and had no access to medical assistance. The young man was beaten and humiliated not only once and was allowed to have a medical examination in three months only, following multiple approaches. Doctors of the Emergency Medicine Institute identified a number of tumors and traumas on his body. When he was transported to the hospital and to the court of law, the young man was escorted in very strict conditions, with dozens of masked and armed men. Such a ‘show’ was staged intentionally to give the impression that a very dangerous criminal was being escorted.

Lawyer Ludmila Bolocan said David Davitean was sentenced to 16 years in jail for acts that he didn’t commit. According to her, the legal system of Moldova was discredited even if there are separate powers in the state and justice should be independent from the prosecution service and other bodies. A condition for a fair trial is to ensure the contradictoriness of the trial, but this wasn’t done in this case, while the presence of lawyers was a formality because the process was orchestrated.

The lawyer also said that this case shouldn’t have been sent to court because there were reasons to nullify all the documents based on which this was started. Another important aspect is the fact that the defendant was removed from the trail throughout its duration and the judge acted abusively, not ensuring thus a fair trial.

Another lawyer of the family Alexandru Botnariuc said there is no independence among judges and these cannot take objective decisions. This trial involved multiple violations and many applications remained unanswered or were rejected. The conviction was challenged in the Appeals Court.

The lawyers said they are ready to go to all the higher courts to seek justice in this case and to prove David Davitean’s innocence.