Cry from within "democratic" Moldova's prison

13/12/2014
Appeal to the ambassadors of the EU and the US in the Republic of Moldova
by Paul Grigorchuk
Moldovan activist Paul Grigorchuk, a journalist and leader of the Social Forum of Moldova, wrote this powerful statement in prison, where he has been held since before the Nov. 30 parliamentary elections in Europe's poorest country: "So far they have only managed to get rid of dissidents".
Paul Grigorchuk

I ask independent media to publish this appeal, which I write while sitting in a Moldovan prison cell.

To begin with (for those who still do not know), my criminal case was fabricated and all the criminal charges are politically motivated.

I permit myself to make this appeal in the form of congratulations to representatives of the Western diplomatic missions. Today, they can celebrate the results of the recent parliamentary elections in Moldova.

So I want to first of all congratulate the U.S. ambassador and head of the EU delegation in Moldova.

Distinguished diplomats: While you provided all possible moral and financial support to the corrupt government of oligarchs and bribe-takers (in the opinion of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Moldova), the first political prisoners were imprisoned in Moldova. Is it possible that this is a result of “democracy” in the poorest country in Europe that you can report as a “success story” about the development of our Republic?

Congratulations to you, and also to the fact that so-called “European values” and “principles of democracy” which you declare, commenting on the situation in Moldova, magnificently blossomed into bans against the opposition and people who think differently from senior officials of the Republic of Moldova. From now on, “freedom of speech” and “pluralism” in the European style means the closing of unwanted media and the persecution of dissident journalists and activists by the authorities. Because now peaceful political protests are equated with extremism and anti-fascism qualifies as a criminal offense in Moldova.

I want to send the U.S. ambassador a testimonial recommendation of the General Prosecutor’s Office. Though they were in a hurry, they concocted against me a political case whose contradictions and improbabilities can stand up to any product of classic fiction. According to them, I who have never taken up arms or engaged in combat sports can fight any “Navy Seal,” and today I am able to arrange the country's second October Revolution. I hope that after reading my case, if you are interested, you may put in a word for the Moldovan prosecutor with some Hollywood producers. Perhaps the best Western actors would be interested in playing a role in the fantastic scenarios of the criminal cases against political dissidents in Moldova.

The General Prosecutor’s Office apparently has psychic abilities as well. How else to explain the fact that the criminal case against me, that I allegedly was preparing to destabilize the country in October-November, was opened in August, long before I, in their opinion, had committed a crime? I think that even the countries and blocs you represent could learn from Moldova’s visionary prosecutors.

Unfortunately, those psychic abilities the prosecutors were able to apply to my case, which allowed one of the parties to talk heroically during the election campaign about the need to “fight against extremism,” were not evident in preventing the murder of Sorin Paču in the "Padurea Domneasca" hunting reserve, nor in the disclosure of the crime by the VIPs of Moldovan justice. For some reason, the powers of domestic law enforcement are not enough to capture former Democratic Party deputy Valery Guma. Though deprived of parliamentary immunity and wanted by Interpol, it is not enough for Moldovan law enforcement agencies to bring him in. But the main thing is not the fight against corruption, but that “democracy” is developing in the country ... right?

I will not take a lot of your time. For today you are surely busy with much more important matters than my treatment – the establishment of a new-old pro-Western coalition government, made up of politically bankrupt individuals committed to “European values” yet discredited in the eyes of at least every second voter.

Know that on December 8, the first anniversary of the death of my mother, I cannot be at her grave. Michael Amerberg [another imprisoned communist activist] cannot even be with his pregnant wife at this critical time.

... Meanwhile, the parties of the "democratic" majority again speak about "principles and values.” They again promise to rid the country of villains and corruption. But so far they have only successfully managed to get rid of dissidents and the opposition. Reliably isolate them in prisons. With tacit consent. Your consent, gentlemen. Don’t you agree?

Paul Grigorchuk, journalist, civic activist, political prisoner

P.S. : I hope that the media who publish my congratulatory message will not be equated with extremist and terrorist organizations.