Concerns in Europe: January - June 2001
57
Amnesty International September 2001
AI Index: EUR 01/003/2001
Mircea Chifan’s children and brothers attempted on
several occasions to visit him in the police lockup but
were refused each time under the pretext that the
detainee was violent. However, the family believed
that they were not allowed to see Mircea Chifan
because of the visible injuries that he may have
suffered as a result of ill-treatment by police officers.
The B
c
u Military Prosecutor is reportedly
conducting an investigation into the death of Mircea
Chifan.
On 14 December 2000 in Bucharest, at around
4pm 30-year-old N.M.
19
was returning home from
work on tram number 34. Suddenly the tram came to
a halt in front of a police patrol and two masked
officers ordered N.M. to get off, searched him,
handcuffed him and took him to a police car where he
was reportedly punched on the head and threatened
with a gun by one of the officers. After he was brought
to the Bucharest central police station he was
photographed and fingerprinted, and the police
reportedly still refused to give any explanation for his
arrest. Afterwards he was released without being
charged with any offence. On the same day N.M. was
examined by a doctor who established lesions on both
hands and bruises on his face, injuries which are
consistent with the ill-treatment allegations.
On 19 January 2001 in Doroban
i, a village in
Ia
i county, at around 5.40am two police officers
came to the house of Acsinie family presenting a paper
which they claimed to be a search warrant. They were
followed by an unspecified number of masked police
officers who entered the room where brothers Dinu,
Petru and Mih
i
a Acsinie were sleeping. The police
officers reportedly hit Dinu Acsinie in the chest with
a truncheon and then handcuffed the three men. Ten
other men in the village were also arrested during the
police operation, which reportedly had been organized
to apprehend several men suspected of having
committed various offences. All the detained men
were taken to the Ia
i municipal police station. The
Acsinie brothers and Anton Florin were intermittently
questioned about a theft of hens. They were reportedly
subjected to beatings, including with a crowbar on the
finger tips, and were ordered to perform push-ups and
squats. At around 6pm, 20-year-old Mih
i
, the
youngest of the Acsinie brothers, wrote under duress
a ‘confession’ which had been dictated to him by
Sergeant E.G.
20
Afterwards Mih
i
told Anton
Florin: “I could not take this any longer. I gave them
a statement admitting my guilt. I shall kill myself.” All
four men were released at around 8pm.
Six days later,
tefan Acsinie, the father of the
three brothers, was told by Sergeant E.G. that his sons
should report to the police station the following day.
That night Mih
i
Acsinie committed suicide by
hanging, reportedly because he feared further police
torture.
The following two cases of ill-treatment of minors
were reported by APADOR-CH. On 14 March 2001,
at around 10am in Vl
de
ti, 14-year- old Vasile
D
nu
, who was working in the field with his mother,
was taken by police officers S.H. and G.B., and a
farmer whose cow had allegedly been stolen, to the
local station for questioning. Vasile D
nu
Moise
later described how the police officers beat him on the
palms of his hands and on the back with a “shepherd’s
staff” (a wooden rod about one metre long) and with a
truncheon. A third officer hit him with a file case on
the head making him fall against a stove and injuring
19
The victim’s name is known to AI but is withheld to
protect his
identity
20
The names of all police officers whose identity has
himself. The police officers then drove Vasile D
nu
Moise to another village where they wanted him to
identify the house where the stolen cow was allegedly
hidden. When they returned to the police station, they
found Vasile’s mother and a neighbour waiting.
Vasile D
nu
Moise was crying and appeared very
frightened, but his mother was reportedly not allowed
to accompany him inside. He wrote a statement which
had been dictated to him by the police officers. That
evening Vasile D
nu
Moise was taken to the Pite
ti
Pediatric Hospital. The hospital records note that he
had an acute head injury, an eye edema and was
suffering from “the Silvermann syndrome” (Battered
Child Syndrome). The doctor who treated the boy
stated that the boy had weals on his back which
apparently resulted from beating with a truncheon (see
AI Index: EUR 39/005/2001).
On 5 April at around 9pm in Oradea Ioana Silaghi,
who is 15, and Teodora Stanciu, who is 16, were
returning home from the railway station when a man,
who appeared to be under the influence of alcohol,
came up to Teodora Stanciu and addressed her with
rude words and gestures. The girls began to shout for
help but the man held on to Ioana Silaghi. When
another man, who witnessed the incident, tried to help
the girls the person who had attacked them took out a
police identification card and presented himself as
Major M. He then took Ioana Silaghi to the police
office in the railway station where, accusing her of
stealing his mobile phone, he reportedly knocked
Ioana Silaghi’s head against the wall and the table top
and then several times hit and kicked her all over her
body. Another police officer was in the room but he
reportedly failed to take any action to protect the
minor. After the parents of Ioana Silaghi and Teodora
Stanciu arrived at the station, Major M. initially
refused to allow them into the office where Ioana was
detained. The situation was resolved when an officer
of the County Police Inspectorate arrived at the scene.
The following day Ioana Silaghi was examined by a
forensic medical expert who issued a certificate which
described contusions and bruises on the arms, legs and
her body, and a haematoma on the left side of the face
(see AI Index: EUR 39/009/2001).
been protected in this report are known to AI