Report on the case of an underage of Galati beaten by the gendarmes

1. On February 18-th 2002, two representatives of APADOR-CH went to Galati to carry out their own investigations into several cases of violations of human rights, among which that of minor Calin Sterica (14 years old), student at School nr.15 of that municipality.

2. Description of the incident

On February 5-th this year, the underage was ready to leave school and go home. As on that day several youngsters (it is not clear whether they were students of that school or were from outside it) made a scandal in the schoolyard, the school principal called the local gendarmes. She did not wait for the gendarmes to come and left the school. Two gendarmes entered the schoolyard saw the underage that was just leaving and started beating him, hitting him with their fists and clubs. Then they took him to their car and right then the minor's mother came in, alerted by the neighbors. Scared about what was happening to her kid she started to shout at the gendarmes, to the teachers that were still in the school, the result being a substantial fine (4 million lei) for "disturbance of public order and tranquility". The Calin family is very poor, living at the lower level of subsistence (recently they were cut off the electricity because they could not pay the bills). Consequently, the amount of 4 million lei is much too big for them.

Some tens of meters away from school the gendarmes abandoned the minor. Carried to the emergency hospital after that, Calin Sterica was kept in the hospital for several days. Little before the visit of the representatives of APADOR-CH to the house of the Calin family, the underage - said the neighbor in the yard - vomited blood. Hence, the consequences of the beating can have a bigger impact on the health condition of the minor than the doctors of the emergency hospital thought - or wanted to believe - it had, without forgetting also the trauma suffered, of a major importance for a 14-year old kid.

The school principal admitted in public that Calin Sterica had not been guilty of the scandal in the schoolyard and that she was wrong to leave the school before the gendarmes came.

During the discussion which the representatives of the association had with the minor's mother she seemed firmly convinced to use all the legal avenues in the country (complaint at the Military Prosecutor's Office) and abroad (in case of no indictment decision, complaint at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg). It was agreed that on the next morning the APADOR-CH representatives would be given the declarations of the minor, of his mother and of a brother of Sterica, student at the same school, hit himself by the two gendarmes, plus copies of the hospital discharge chart.

3. The reaction of the County Bureau for the Roma

The next day the minor's mother insisted that the representatives of APADOR-CH should go and talk to "the president". At the Galati County Bureau for the Roma they were welcomed by Viorica Gotu – head of the office – an extremely aggressive person. It came out very clearly and quickly that Viorica Gotu – the representative of the Roma in county Galati, supposed to uphold their rights - was categorically against the Calin family's exercising their legal right to file a complaint with the Military Prosecutor's Office. She upheld that she had agreements of cooperation with the Gendarmerie and the Galati Police and that such a complaint would put in danger the relationship that she built with the respective institutions. More than that, Viorica Gotu threatened the minor's mother that if she did what the representatives of APADOR-CH told her she would never help the Calin family again. Viorica Gotu also said that she intervened everywhere, including at the Galati County Police Inspectorate for the police report on the fine of the minor's mother to be cancelled, but she did not mention in any way the legal possibility of contesting the report in court. It was absolutely clear that, if the Calin family started the legal action against the two gendarmes who assaulted the underage, the representative of the Roma would have withdrawn the "support" based on personal interventions and not on legal provisions and procedures. In addition to all this, Viorica Gotu also declared that the gendarmes involved in the incident had been fired by the head of the Galati Gendarmerie, Colonel Vasile Harabagiu, so that there is no justification for a possible complaint by the victim. In addition Viorica Gotu said that any complaint of the victim would "put in danger" the protocol which she concluded with the Galati Gendarmerie.

Scared by all these bellicose declarations of the representative of the Roma the mother of Calin Sterica gave in and said she renounces the complaint.

Conclusions:

• APADOR-CH considers as inadmissible the behavior of the head of the Galati County Bureau for the Roma who, instead of supporting all the legal actions which the Calin family might undertake had actually blocked them, taking advantage of the victim's lack of legal culture (who could have contested the fine in court but did not do it because: 1) did not know about this and 2) Viorica Gotu “resolved” the problem by means of the "agreements of cooperation" with the law enforcement bodies);
• Equally inadmissible is the idea that, once "a protocol of cooperation" is concluded with the gendarmerie any violent action of the gendarmes against the Roma must be overlooked in order not to "jeopardize the protocol";
• APADOR-CH considers also that maintaining in office people like Viorica Gotu does more harm to the Roma. Instead of upholding their rights and encouraging the Roma to seek justice by legal avenues, Viorica Gotu takes advantage of her official position and of the protocols signed by her with the law enforcement bodies to block any legal action;
• In the opinion of the association, the dismissal of the two gendarmes, guilty of assaulting minor Calin Sterica (if the dismissal is real) is no righteous satisfaction, in the sense of the case law of the European Court of Human Rights. A trial is necessary, where the victim should ask for material and moral damages. In the Romanian legal system such a trial has chances only if the person (persons) accused are sent to court by the Prosecutor's Office;
• Given the fact that this is about an underage assaulted by the gendarmes, APADOR-CH considers that there are reasons for the Military Prosecutor's Office to start investigating the offence of assault provided for at art.250 paragraph 2 of the Criminal Code related to the brutalities perpetrated by the gendarmes on Calin Sterica. The possible dismissal of the two gendarmes involved in this is not a measure liable to replace the criminal liability of the two.