Moldovan graffiti case reaches Romanian border
Romanian border guards have detained Moldovan citizen Iurie Manica as he entered the country, after Frenchauthorities put him on an international wanted list.
France accuses the Moldovan national of organising actions intended to undermine the morale of the armed forces and harm national defence, a charge that carries up to five years in prison. So what offence was serious enough to have a Moldovan citizen pursued across Europe?
According to the case, he was part of an “organised group of four”, all Moldovans, who painted graffiti on buildings showing coffins with helicopter blades, along with slogans opposing France’s involvement in the war in Ukraine. Naturally, the “hand of Moscow” is said to have been involved as well. The other three have already been detained and brought before a court, now the authorities have caught up with the fourth.
Five years in prison over political graffiti
An international manhunt and the prospect of five years behind bars over political graffiti. And this is France, a country whose free-speech tradition reaches back to Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Denis Diderot and Montesquieu.
Yet France has reached the point where Charlie Hebdo, a magazine that quite literally treats nothing as sacred and mocks what many people hold holy in the crudest terms, is treated as a symbol of free expression. Write an anti-war slogan on a wall, however, and it becomes a serious crime.
The Moldovan graffiti case therefore says more than it may first seem. It raises a direct question about the selective boundaries of European freedom: one kind of provocation is celebrated as liberty, while another is pursued through international police channels.
No protest from the Moldovan state in defence of its own citizens should be expected. Apparently, this is the kind of European “freedom” they intend to bring here as well.
