The Jurists' Union of Romania addressed an open letter...

The Jurists' Union of Romania addressed an open letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin, asking him to intervene to secure the prison release of Ilie Ilascu and the members of his group, who were sentenced to death in December 1993 by the separatist authorities of the self-proclaimed Dniester Republic. Accused of involvement in terrorist actions, Ilie Ilascu, a Romanian patriot and deputy in the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova, had his sentence commuted to life imprisonment in 1997. The members of his group have sentences of 12 and 15 years in jail. The sentences passed by the illegal authorities in Tiraspol were discarded by the Supreme Court of Justice of the Republic of Moldova but the authorities of the self-proclaimed Dniester Republic did not respect the Moldovan Supreme Court's ruling. The letter also stated that many heads of state and government and many international bodies have intervened in favour of the annulment of the !sentence of the court in Tiraspol, the capital of the Dniester Republic, which is legally part of the Republic of Moldova.