April 14, 2017 UPDATE

Over 50,000 Interior Ministry personnel to ensure public safety and order during Easter holidays

Newsroom, 14.04.2017, 19:44

ANTI-CORRUPTION – The Romanian authorities are to initiate the extradition procedure for former Deputy Sebastian Ghita, apprehended in Belgrade almost 4 months since he disappeared. When he was caught he presented false ID, allegedly issued by an EU state. Sebastian Ghita went missing on December 21, 2016 and was subject to a national warrant after breaching the terms of the restrictions imposed on him pending trial. On January 10, the court issued a European arrest warrant against him and he was also placed on the Interpol wanted list. Ghita is tried in two corruption cases and prosecuted in two others.

EASTER PREPARATIONS – Over 50,000 police, gendarmes, border police, fire-fighters and other Interior Ministry employees will ensure public safety and order these days. Special attention will be paid to crowded areas, tourist resorts and churches. According to the Ministry, an average 1,500 road traffic police will be present every day on public roads, in order to prevent serious accidents and to ensure smooth traffic. Nearly 5,200 fire fighters will be on duty daily, while 1,300 emergency intervention teams and ambulances will be on stand-by to provide first aid. The General Aviation Inspectorate also has available 7 helicopters.

BORDER CHECKS – Romanian check points are getting crowded, because of a new European regulation tightening border checks, which took effect last week, and because of increased traffic ahead of the Easter holidays, the General Border Police Inspectorate reports. The most crowded is the Siret checkpoint on the Ukrainian border in the north-east, where waiting times reach 10 hours for trucks to get out of the country and 2 to enter Romania. Queues are also reported at checkpoints in the east, on the Moldovan border, in the south, on the Bulgarian border, and in the west, on the Hungarian border. The authorities expect further queuing, because Hungary has introduced traffic restrictions for trucks during the Easter holidays.

ILLEGAL MIGRATION – 38 Iraqi and Pakistani citizens have been caught in the past 24 hours trying to enter Romania illegally from Serbia. The Border Police announced in a news release that several groups of people, including underage children, were found traveling from Serbia to six border localities in the counties of Caras-Severin, in the south-west, and Timis, in the west. According to the news release, all of them are being probed into for illegal border crossing, and the investigations are conducted jointly with the Serb authorities.

R. OF MOLDOVA – The Republic of Moldova will be an observer in the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), the President of Kyrgyzstan Almazbek Atambayev announced on Friday at the summit of the organisation, held in Bishkek. Atambayev said all the members of the EAEU, namely Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia, had agreed in principle with the request of the Moldovan President Igor Dodon. He added that this did not mean the Republic of Moldova was necessarily to become a member of the organisation. Igor Dodon believes his countrys EU Association Agreement does not prevent the signature of other agreements that would benefit the citizens of the Republic of Moldova. Moldovas pro-Western Government headed by PM Pavel Filip supports the countrys EU accession, whereas the President of the Republic, the pro-Russian Socialist Igor Dodon, wants the agreements signed with Brussels cancelled and his country to steer towards the Eurasian Union.

US AIR STRIKE – The IS groups propaganda agency, Amaq, Friday denied the jihadist group having suffered losses after Thursdays American bombing in Afghanistan, in which Afghan authorities say at least 36 jihadists died, AFP reports. Washington used the largest non-nuclear bomb ever launched by the US, to target grottoes and tunnels in the east of that country, where terrorists were believed to be hiding. This was the second air strike by the Pentagon in a week, after bombing the Shairat Airport in Syria. The US Army has another 19 such bombs in its arsenal, which are worth over 300 million USD.

(translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)