ERRC Letter to Chief of Police of Mures County, Romania
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Date: Thu, 2 Apr 1998 14:42:32 +0300 (EET DST)
Message-Id: <[email protected]>
Subject: ERRC Letter to Chief of Police of Mures County, Romania
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Original sender: Claude Cahn <[email protected]>
ERRC Letter to Chief of Police of Mures County, Romania
On March 23, the European Roma Rights Center, an international public
interest law organisation which monitors the situation of Roma in
Europe and provides legal defence in cases of human rights abuse, sent
a letter to Mr.Vasile Cotoara, Chief of Police of Mures County,
Romania. The letter concerns an incident of police harrassment which
took place in Tirgu Mures on March 16 and 18.
Mr.Vasile Cotoara
Chief of the Mures County Police
Inspectoratul Judetean de Politie Mures
Fax: 40-65-137 882
Budapest, March 23, 1998
Dear Mr.Cotoara,
The European Roma Rights Center, an international public interest law
organisation which monitors the situation of Roma in Europe and
provides legal defence in cases of human rights abuse, is concerned
about an incident of alleged police harassment of Calin Berar, Florin
Cioc, Chirila Morar, and Gheorghe Notar which took place in
Tirgu-Mures on March 16 and 18, 1998.
According to information received by the ERRC, at 3:10 pm on March 16,
1998, police officers Ivan Santean and Vasile Gliga came to inform
Mr.Notar - who was in front of his house - that he had to present
himself as witness in a case of theft that occurred in the
neighbourhood. Thereafter, the officers pushed Mr.Notar aside,
forcefully entered his house, and requested that Calin Berar, Florin
Cioc and Chirila Morar, all of whom were in the house at the time of
the intrusion, present their identification papers. The officers
offered no explanation for their request. Nonetheless, upon being
shown the requested documents, the police officers reportedly kept
them and ordered the three to present themselves at the police station
at 8 am on March 18, 1998.
At 8 am on March 18, Mr. Berar, Mr. Cioc and Mr. Morar went to the
police station. There, the three men were reportedly asked to sign a
statement dictated to them about the way in which the two police
officers had entered the house of Mr.Notar. According to this
statement, the police had come to the house in question because they
had been called there. The three men refused to sign this statement,
as it was not true.
After approximately 1,5 hours of questioning, the three men were
returned their IDs, and were released without charges.
The ERRC would appreciate any information you may be able to provide
regarding the above described incident.
We thank you for your kind cooperation and look forward to your reply.
Sincerely,
Dimitrina Petrova
Executive Director
* * * * *
European Roma Rights Center
P.O.Box 10/24
1525 Budapest 114
Hungary
Phone: + (36 1) 327-98-77
Fax: + (36-1) 138-37-27
Board of Directors:
Andras Biro, Chair (Hungary)
Isabel Fonseca (UK)
Nicolae Gheorghe (Romania)
Deborah Harding (USA)
Rudko Kawczynski (Germany)
Khristo Kyuchukov (Bulgaria)
Lord Lester of Herne Hill Q. C. (UK)
Edgar Morin (France)
Ina Zoon (Spain)
--
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