2008-04-02
Razvan Martin, program coordinator within the Press Monitoring Agency was detained on Wednesday by police officers and taken to precinct 10 in capital city Bucharest.
“Martin is inside his car and a police officer is driving it. They are being escorted by another car to the tenth precinct. Nobody told him he is officially detained, but he is not free either. A free man would be driving his own car,” Mircea Toma, the Agency’s head, told Mediafax.
He said he will go to the station to see what is going on.
Martin told Mediafax reporters by phone that he was in a car together with five other people and stopped to ask directions on how to get to precinct no. 11. Martin intended to get to the station so that he may help the people that had been taken into custody from the Timpuri Noi Factory. His colleague Liliana Ganea was already there.
“When I stopped and asked the police officers how to reach the station they said they would drive us there, after which they got in the car, one of them behind the wheel, and took off. On the way, they told us we are actually heading towards police station no. 10 and that we cannot stop the car to get down,” Martin said.
The agency is part of the organization Reporters sans frontières (Reporters Without Borders).
However, quaestor Marian Tutilescu, head of the Romanian Police Forces said that Martin was not detained. He said Martin was only escorted to the precinct, as well as all other people in that area, for investigations.
The latest news says Martin was released from custody.