CATAN AND OTHERS v. MOLDOVA AND RUSSIA JUDGMENT 15 56. The “MRT” regime allowed the school to reopen in September 2004, but in different premises, rented from the “MRT” authorities. The school is currently using three buildings, located in separate districts of the town. The main building has no cafeteria, science or sports facilities and cannot be reached by public transport. The Moldovan Government provided the school with a bus and computers. They also paid for the refurbishment of the sanitary facilities in one of the buildings. 57. The applicants have filed a number of petitions and complaints with the Russian and Moldovan authorities. 58. There were 1751 pupils at the school in 2002-2003 and 901 in 2008-2009. 3. Cercavschi and Others (application no. 18454/06) 59. The applicants are 46 children who were studying at the Ştefan cel Mare School in Grigoriopol during the relevant period and 50 parents (see the attached annex). 60. In 1996, at the request of the parents and their children, the school, which was using a Cyrillic alphabet curriculum, filed a number of petitions with the “MRT” regime requesting to be allowed to use the Latin script. As a result, between 1996 and 2002, the “MRT” orchestrated a campaign of hostile press reports, intimidation and threats by security forces. These measures reached a climax on 22 August 2002 when Transdniestrian police stormed the school and evicted the teachers, the pupils and their parents who were inside it. On 28 August 2002 the President of the Pupils Committee was arrested and subsequently sentenced to fifteen days’ administrative imprisonment. Following these incidents, 300 pupils left the school. 61. Faced with the occupation of the building by the “MRT” regime, the Moldovan Ministry of Education decided that the school should be transferred temporarily to a building in Doroţcaia, a village about 20 kilometres from Grigoripol and which is under Moldovan control. Each day, pupils and teachers were taken to Doroţcaia in buses provided by the Moldovan Government. They were subjected to bag searches and identity checks by “MRT” officials and also, allegedly, acts of harassment such as spitting and verbal abuse. 62. Representatives of the school filed a number of petitions and complained about this situation to the OSCE, the United Nations Organisation, as well as to the Russian and Moldovan authorities. The Russian authorities replied by urging both Moldova and “MRT” to use various types of negotiations in order to solve the conflict. The Moldovan authorities informed the applicants that they could do nothing further to help. 63. There were 709 pupils at the school in 2000-2001 and 169 in 2008-2009.