This is Transdniestria's official reaction to the judgement of the European Human Rights Court on the case of "Ilashku and others against Moldova and Russia".
In July the European Human Rights Court ruled that, alongside the payment of monetary compensations, "Moldova and Russia shall take all the required measures to end unlawful deprivation of freedom of the applicants, who are still being held in confinement, and ensure their immediate liberation".
At the present time, Tudor Petrov-Popa and Andrei Ivantsyok are being kept in prison in Transdniestria. Last June Alexandru Leshko was set free after 12 years in prison.
Sentenced to death, replaced to life imprisonment, Ilie Ilashku (Ilya in his Soviet passport) was liberated after the appeal of Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin in May 2001. Ilashku, acquiring Rumanian citizenship, has been elected senator in Romania.
"We hope that, within the framework of such an authoritative human rights-protection institution, their crimes against civilians will gain international understanding and due assessment, for which the Transdniestrian side has taken all the required measures, including the passing of corresponding proofs and documents", the statement reads.
"Unfortunately, the European Court has approached the case very tendentiously and superficially. A corresponding outcome of this biased approach to the fulfilling of their professional duties by the members of the Court is the passing of the judgement having nothing in common with justice and creating a dangerous precedent and encouragement of terrorism in its heinous manifestations", the document reads.
Expressing its indignation over the ruling of the European Court, the Transdniestrian Foreign Ministry believes that "terrorists have neither nationality, nor dignity and may not expect leniency, their crimes have no period of prescription".
(Ilashku and his three assistants were sentenced for participation in acts of terrorism against the Transdniestrian authorities and the slaughtering of two persons.)
