A senior official in Moldova’s Communist party has admitted that opposition protesters have been subject to police brutality over the past week but said the officers in question should not be punished.

Marian Lupu, speaker of Moldova’s parliament, said the amnesty from prosecution announced on Wednesday by Vladimir Voronin, Moldova’s president, must apply to protesters who contested the Communists’ election victory two weeks ago as well as to the police who beat them in holding cells.