CHISINAU -- Some 90 people were continuing their hunger strike for the fourth straight day in jail as they await trial in Tiraspol, the capital of Moldova’s breakaway region of Transdniester, RFE/RL's Moldovan Service reports.
The detainees are protesting their long pretrial detentions and the conditions in the jails where they are being held.
Relatives of the detainees interviewed by the Moldovan nongovernmental organization Promo-Lex said several of the protesters claim they have been beaten and abused.
Some of the mothers and sisters of those jailed also reported being threatened by police officers who warned them that they would be beaten and raped if they told anyone about the prison conditions.
Promo-Lex said it is alerting the Moldovan and Russian authorities, as well as the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and other international bodies, about the events at the jail.
Transdniester broke away from Moldova in the early 1990s after a short war with Chisinau.