This is the moment a man setting an LGBT activist’s car alight accidentally sets himself on fire before and runs away trying to put it out.
The startling scene was recorded by a CCTV camera in Chisinau, the capital of the Republic of Moldova outside the house of prominent LGBT lawyer Doina Ioana Straisteanu.
In the video, a man can be seen walking up to Straisteanu’s Volkswagen and dousing it in a flammable liquid.
The hooded vandal then goes to light the liquid and the front of the car goes up in a bright flash of flames.
However, the thug can then be seen sprinting away from the scene with his left hand on fire as the car continues burning.
Lawyer Straisteanu, who works for a local NGO representing the LGBT community’s rights in the Moldovan capital, has reportedly made enemies in the country where the gay community are marginalised and demonised by public opinion and the discourse of the mainstream Orthodox church.
She said: “On the 8th May, I managed to win a trial for a client who was brutally raped. The man was sentenced to prison, but he fled the country, so it is clear I am the number one enemy while the criminal is walking freely on the streets.
“It could be possible as well that one of my neighbours paid or asked someone to do this in order to frighten me. One of my neighbours threatened me several times because I defend the interests of LGBT people.”
She added that the man in the video was most likely acting on someone else’s commands.
The lawyer reportedly filed a complaint two years ago when she claimed a neighbour sent her death threats because she defends LGBT clients.
The investigation into the vandalism is ongoing and no arrests have been reported.
To find out more about the author, editor or agency, that supplied this story-Please click below. Story By: Conor Sheils, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News
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