Listeners of the municipal radio station Antena C say they were summoned on Wednesday by the domestic security service SIS for verifications after beeing interviewed during a live broadcast on topics about a regime change.

The chairman of the Lawyers for Human Rights, Vitalie Nagacevschi, who assisted famous painter Isai Carmu, one of the questioned persons, stated to BASA that SIS staff told him they verify "a potential call for overthrowing of the state regime through violence" - an offence contained in Article 64 of the Penal Code. Nagacevschi stressed that the investigators were correct during the questioning and told Carmu that "he was not in the sphere of their interests" after two questions.

SIS spokesman Vitalie Burzacovschi avoided statements on this issue.

The radio station Antena C from Chisinau announced on Tuesday that many radio listeners had been summoned by the SIS for questioning about their criticism against the communist authorities during a live night broadcast called "Hyde Park".

Contacted by the interviewer for comments on the allegations, the chairman of the Helsinki-Moldova Committee, Stefan Uratu, said that the state authorities should encourage the citizens to freely express their thoughts, because this is a way to feel the pulse of governance and make things better. If the SIS does more than verifications of a reported offence, it can be accused of illegal actions of political policy which is banned by law.

According to the opposition press, President Vladimir Voronin was extremely dissatisfied in connection with "the erroneous understanding by the SIS how to guard the state security." Some papers speculated that some SIS officials could be fired.