Ernest Vardanean, a journalist who was sentenced to 15 years in prison on a charge of spying for Moldova at the end of a sham trial last December, was pardoned on May 5 by the breakaway Republic of Transnistria’s president, Igor Smirnov, according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF).
Detained since April 2010, Vardanean was able to return to his home in the Transnistrian capital of Tiraspol.
“We are very relieved by Vardanean’s release,” RSF said. “But this supposedly magnanimous gesture by the Transnistrian authorities should not distract from the fact that his right to a fair trial was denied at all times.” It added: “This ‘pardon’ was clearly given in return for the televised ‘confession’ that was extracted from him in a manner recalling the Soviet-style practices that should have consigned to history.”
"We welcome the release of Ernest Vardanian, but he should not have spent a single day in prison because of his work," CPJ Europe and Central Asia Programme Coordinator Nina Ognianova said. "We hope we've seen the last journalist jailed in PMR on trumped-up charges."
Vardanian thanked CPJ and other press freedom and human rights groups who had pushed for his release. "Your advocacy offered me a moral support in prison," Vardanian told CPJ." It helped me realize that I was not forgotten and left behind."
