Doc. 10018

9 December 2003

Release of Andrei Ivantec, Alexandru Lesco and Tudor Petrov Popa

Written Question No. 436 to the Chair of the Committee of Ministers

Reply from the Chair of the Committee of Ministers

I. Written Question No. 436 by M. Ilaşcu (Doc. 9956)

Eleven years have already passed since 3 political prisoners – Andrei Ivantoc, Alexandru Lesco and Tudor Petrov Popa – were illegally imprisoned by the separatist authorities of Transnistria, in spite of repeated appeals from the Council of Europe and the OSCE. I have said in the past, and will continue to say whenever I have the opportunity, that this case involves a flagrant violation of human rights.

Mr Ilaşcu

To ask the Chairman of the Committee of Ministers,

What steps have been taken recently by the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers and by the Chairman personally with a view to obtaining their release.

II. Reply by the Chairperson of the Committee of Ministers

Mr Ilaşcu has raised an issue of which the Committee of Ministers is fully aware. Indeed, Mr Ilaşcu himself raised the matter at the Parliamentary Assembly’s June 2003 session under the questions put to the Chairman of the Committee of Ministers for oral reply.

I can but refer the honourable member to the reply given to him then by the Chairman-in Office of the Committee of Ministers, the Foreign Affairs Minister of Moldova, Mr Dudau, who pointed out that MM Ivantec, Lesco and Petrov Popa, together with Mr Ilaşcu himself, had lodged an application with the European Court of Human Rights in July 2001 and that a delegation of four Court judges had heard witnesses in Chisinau and Tiraspol in March 2003. In his capacity of Foreign Affairs Minister of Moldova, he pointed to the efforts of President Voronin to secure a settlement of the Transnistrian conflict and the release of political prisoners.

I can only add that the procedure before the European Court of Human Rights is now closed and the Court is deliberating on the case.

You will understand, therefore, that at this stage the Committee of Ministers is precluded from expressing a view on the matter before the judgement has been handed down but will not fail to take any action that might be necessary in the light of the decision of the European Court of Human Rights.

More generally, I would add that the Committee of Ministers backs all efforts to arrive at a settlement of the Transnistrian question, which, like all the frozen conflicts in Europe, is a threat to stability and democratic progress.