The Ombudsperson Office has been monitoring closely the situation in the penitentiary institutions No.8 and No. 12 of Bender. In 2015 alone, the staff of the Ombudsperson Office conducted 5 visits to each of the two institutions after having examined the complaints from the convicts. In order to verify the petitioners’ complaints about the poor conditions in those penitentiaries, the staff visited the two institutions on February 10 inst. 

The staff have noted no progress in improving the operational conditions in Penitentiary No.8. The latter is still disconnected from the water and sewerage networks and has no power supply. Only three hours a day, from 7:00 pm to 10 pm, power from diesel generators is supplied. Because of the barriers created by the administration in Tiraspol, no sufficient food, wood and coal are provided to the penitentiary. Due to this, limitations are imposed on cell heating; for the heating of a barrack of 40-50 square meters that has two wood-burning stoves, only two armfuls of wood and one bucket of coal per week are provided.

The Ombudsperson Office staff have also confirmed that the conditions of the toilets and the bathrooms and the nutrition of detainees are poor, as the petitioners complained.

Taking into account the latest findings by the Ombudsperson Office staff in terms of the degrading detention conditions in Penitentiary No.8, the Ombudsman expresses his concerns about the existing situation and calls on the authorities to identify solutions for the reported problems. MihailCotorobai recommends giving priority to this issue within the 5+2 talks.