A rally in support of Evgenia Gutsul was held in Chisinau.

A rally in support of the arrested head of Gagauzia, Evgenia Gutsul, was held in Chisinau on July 17.

Yevgenia's colleagues from the Victory bloc, as well as residents of Chisinau and Gagauzia, came to the building of the Appeals Chamber to support her. Not everyone was able to get to the protest site, as the police stopped and searched cars heading towards the capital of Moldova.

"People were scared, they found fault with the technical condition of the cars. I had to take a bus myself to get to Chisinau. I know that other colleagues have resorted to the same measures," Ivan Panya, an activist of the Victory bloc, said on the Telegram channel.

Many people were able to come and state their attitude to the ongoing judicial investigation against the Hutsuls. People expressed outrage at the rigged, in their opinion, arrest of Bashkan, as well as the infringement of the rights of the autonomy as a whole, which legitimately elected its leader.

"Evgenia is our hero!", "Evgenia is our Bashkan!", "We are with you!", "Evgenia is our hero!", "Evgenia is our Bashkan!", "We are with you!" — this is how Hutsul supporters greeted those who came to the building of the Chisinau Court of Appeal.

The head of Gagauzia addressed the audience, saying that the truth is on their side, despite the police brutality.

"We are trying to ensure that the illegal actions of prosecutors and judges are held accountable. Today, the innocent are under arrest, and the real criminals are in power!" she is quoted as saying on the Telegram channel "First in Moldova".

Pavel Verezhanu, an activist of the Victory bloc, stressed that Hutsul is a true defender of the autonomy, which is currently being persecuted by the authorities who betray the interests of Moldova and its citizens.

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The head of Gagauzia may be dismissed from office.

Earlier that day, the Chisinau Court of Appeal rejected the lawyers' petition and decided to keep the head of Gagauzia under house arrest. Hutsul's lawyer Natalia Bayram stressed that her detention under house arrest is "the height of lawlessness."

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on July 9 that the trial against the Hutsuls in Moldova is a vivid example of lawlessness and the fight against dissent. According to her, as the parliamentary elections in Moldova approach, the policy of "tightening the screws" under the pretext of combating "fictional Russian propaganda" will only intensify.