FOREIGN MINISTRY OF TRANSDNESTRIAN MOLDAVIAN REPUBLIC: THE JUDGEMENT SEAT ON ERNEST VARDANYAN’S CASE WILL BE OF A SECRET NATURE

ArmInfo
2010-05-31 14:19:00

ArmInfo. The judgement seat on Ernest Vardanyan’s case will be of a
secret nature, deputy foreign minister of Transdnisterian Moldavian
Republic Aleksandr Malyarchuk told South Caucasus journalists in
Tiraspol.

‘The investigators of State Security Ministry are dealing with the
case, as is accused of illegal actions directed to distraction of the
grounds of the constitutional regime of our republic’, – he said. He
also added that Vardanyan is kept in normal conditions, no violation
is used towards him, he is allowed to have regular meetings with
his relatives.

As for the investigation of Vardanyan’s case, Malyarchuk said that
‘like in any democratic state, there is an idea of procedural guilt,
which should be proved by the court’. ‘The court proceedings will
show if Ernest Vardanyan is guilty or not’, – he said and added that
the public will be informed about the course of the process but it
will be of the secret nature as the issues of the state secret are
touched on in this process.

To recall, on April 7, a group of armed agents from PMR’s Ministry
of State Security (MGB) arrested Vardanian at his home in Tiraspol,
according to local news reports. Irina Vardanian, who spoke to the
press after her husband’s arrest, said the agents told her he was
accused of committing treason against the PMR for Moldova. According
to Article 271 of the internal penal code of the unrecognized republic,
Vardanian faces from 12 to 20 years if convicted.

Vardanian, 30, works as a staff reporter and political analyst for the
Chisinau-based newspaper Puls, freelances for the Russian Internet news
agency Novy Region, and occasionally contributes for Europa Libera-the
Moldova and Romania service of the U.S. government-funded Radio Free
Europe/Radio Liberty. Vasily Botnaru, Europa Libera’s chief editor
told CPJ that Vardanian is known for his independent reporting and
analysis on political and social issues. According to his Puls editors,
Vardanian lives in the Transdniester regional capital of Tiraspol
and commutes daily to the Moldovan capital of Chisinau for work.

Aleksandr Shchetinin, Novy Region’s general director, said Vardanian
had recently focused on international politics rather than Moldovan and
Transdniestrian issues. Shchetinin, who spoke with Irina Vardanian
after her husband’s arrest, told CPJ that MGB agents searched
the journalist’s home, confiscating computers, audio- and video-
reporting equipment, reporter’s notebooks, and the family’s bank and
credit cards.

Puls’s Editor-in-Chief Dmitry Kavruk told Deutsche Welle that since
the fall of 2009, the MGB in Tiraspol had been pressuring Vardanian to
stop working for Chisinau media. Tiraspol officials have been silent
since Vardanian’s arrest on April 7. Repeated attempts by various
media outlets, including Europa Libera and Novy Region, to contact
MGB for information, have been rebuffed.

From: A. Papazian