2006 News Archive

US Department of Justice Donates Video-Conferencing Equipment to the Republic of Moldova’s Prosecutor General’s Office

September 26, 2006

Video-conferencing equipment donated to the Prosecutor General's office

Witnesses in cross-border cases will now be able to testify safely within their own countries and will no longer have to travel outside their borders because of new equipment and technology donated to the Prosecutor General’s Office by the U.S. Department of Justice. 

The donation of a video teleconferencing terminal (VTT) and related equipment was held at the Prosecutor General’s Office on Tuesday, Sept. 26.  Valeriu Balaban, Prosecutor General of Moldova, George Hardy, Resident Legal Adviser of the U.S. Department of Justice to SECI Center in Bucharest, Holly Wiseman, Resident Legal Adviser at the U.S. Embassy, spoke at the donation ceremony.  A demonstration of the technology followed.  

The equipment is expected to help authorities obtain successful results in cross-border cases, given the security and ease it will provide to witnesses. 

Since 2004, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) has provided legal support and assistance to the Southeast European Cooperative Initiative (SECI), which maintains a Regional Center for Combating Trans-border Crime (SECI Center).  The DOJ has also provided considerable support to the South Eastern European Prosecutor's Advisory Group (SEEPAG). 

Witness intimidation and abuse are among the most severe obstacles to obtaining testimony and convictions in many types of cases, including trafficking in persons.  Moldova pioneered the use of video-conferencing testimony in the SECI region two years ago, when through videoconferencing equipment lent by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, a Moldovan trafficking victim testified in a Macedonian case.  The end result of the case was the conviction of her traffickers.