August 3, 2019 UPDATE

Investigators continue searches in the Caracal case, Kristalina Gheorghieva is the EUs candidate to succeed Christine Lagarde as head of IMF

Newsroom, 03.08.2019, 19:35

Caracal – Investigators continue searches in the house of Gheorghe Dinca from Caracal, in the south of Romania, the 60-year old man who, after being arrested, confessed having abducted, raped and killed two teenagers, aged 15 and 18 respectively. The Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism DIICOT announced that, following tests on the bones collected from Dinca’s house, they identified DNA from one single person, the 15-year old girl. In a Facebook post, the victim’s uncle, who is a public person, said he would ask for international counter expertise in relation to the human remains found in the suspect’s house, because he doesn’t believe the girl was burned there, as the suspect claims. Given the complexity of the investigation, the Carcal case was taken over by DIICOT Bucharest under the coordination of chief prosecutor Felix Banila. Meanwhile, the prosecutor who first handled the case at the onset of the investigation was suspended from Magistracy. One week ago he did not authorize policemen to enter the suspect’s house before 6 a.m. He is now under disciplinary hearings for serious neglect by the Judicial Inspection that announced a verification of the way in which all cases were handled by the Prosecutor’s Office with the Caracal Court starting in 2018. People have shown discontentment with the way the authorities acted in this case, and many officials have been dismissed or have resigned themselves. People put the blame on STS – the service that manages the 112 hot line, which the 15-year old girl managed to call, on the police and prosecutors.

IMF — A former European Commissioner Kristalina Gheorghieva from Bulgaria is the EU’s candidate to succeed Christine Lagarde as head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). She defeated her challenger the Dutch Jeroen Dijsselbloem after the other 3 candidates had previously withdrawn from the race. Christine Lagarde will be head of the European Central Bank. During its 70 year long history, the IMF has been led by Europeans. The world’s great powers are going to present their candidates for the chairmanship of the IMF by September, with the new chairperson being announced on October 4. (update by L. Simion)