August 24, 2011

PRESS RELEASE

The Public Information and Press Relations Bureau within the Prosecutor’s Office attached to the High Court of Cassation and Justice is authorized to bring to public knowledge the following:

On August 17, 2011, the prosecutors from the Prosecutor’s Office attached to the Constanţa Tribunal closed the indictment for the prosecution under pretrial arrest of the following defendants:

• SELIM ATIGE for illegal deprivation of liberty, assault and battery and bad treatment of minors;
• CHERCHEZ RUBIE for illegal deprivation of liberty.

The evidence produced during the criminal investigation showed that the defendant Selim Atige is the mother of the minor S.C. Neither of them has identification documents or is registered in the Population Records. In December 2010, the defendant Selim Atige sold her 12-year old daughter to the defendant Cerchez Rubie for a certain amount of money, in order to be married, according to the tradition of the ethnic group to which the two belong, to A.M., aged 11, the son of the defendant Cerchez Rubie. The minor did not agree to this and ran away several times from the home of Cerchez Rubie in the village Valu lui Traian in the Constanţa County, returning to her mother’s home in Constanţa. Each time, the defendant Selim Atige would inflict physical punishment on the minor and take her back to the home of Cerchez Rubie. This went on until July 26, 2011 when the minor S.C. again ran away and, after being returned to Valu lui Traian by the defendant Selim Atige, was tied with a locked chain to the bed leg inside the home of the defendant Cerchez Rubie, with the latter’s help. The defendant Selim Atige again inflicted physical punishment on the minor, causing her bodily injuries that required 8 to 9 days of medical care to heal, the traumas posing real danger to the normal development of the minor’s personality. The minor has consequently suffered a psychic trauma from which she can recover with proper care. On July 28, 2011, the minor S.C. managed to untie the wire with which the chain was tied and ran away again, being later identified on a street in Valu lui Traian by several inhabitants who alerted the police.

It should be pointed out that the acts committed by the defendant Selim Atige are posing a high level of social danger considering that the latter, as mother of the minor S.C., sold her to the defendant Cerchez Rubie in order to be married to the minor A.M., the son of the defendant Cerchez Rubie, illegally and constantly depriving her of liberty until the minor managed to escape and run and was found in a public place by individuals who alerted the police.

In addition, the defendant Selim Atige inflicted physical punishment on the minor causing bodily injury that required 8 to 9 days of medical care to heal, and, together with the defendant Cerchez Rubie, chained the minor to a bed in the latter’s home, all these acts being offences aggravating the consequences of the acts for which the two have been prosecuted.

It should be reminded that, on July 29, 2011, the prosecutors of the Prosecutor’s Office attached to the Constanţa Tribunal filed a request for a 29-day pretrial detention of the defendants Selim Atige and Cerchez Rubie for the above mentioned acts. The measure expires on August 26, 2011.

The case falls under the jurisdiction of the Constanţa Local Court.