Major Cases in the Fight Against Corruption
Several Romanian senators and deputies have lost their parliamentary immunity, allowing the courts to prosecute them for involvement in various cases of corruption or incompatibility.
Corina Cristea, 20.11.2014, 13:57
Extensively debated upon during the recent presidential election campaign in Romania, the issues regarding the rejection of the amnesty and pardon draft law and the lifting of several parliamentarians’ immunity were settled shortly after the results of Sunday’s elections were made public. Submitted a year ago, the draft law on amnesty triggered protests by civil society and on Tuesday night the Chamber of Deputies, convening in plenary session, voted against the draft.
The two initiators of the law, the Social Democrat Madalin Voicu and Nicolae Paun, representing the ethnic minorities’ group, had justified their initiative by saying that those sentenced for petty crimes should be pardoned, as prisons were overcrowded as they were. That would have covered the crimes for which the Criminal Code or special laws provide for sentences of up to 7 years in prison and the pardoning of 6 year sentences. On the same day, the Romanian deputies approved the request submitted by prosecutors with the National Anti-Corruption Directorate, under which Social Democrat Ioan Adam, Conservative Ion Dinita and Liberal Mircea Rosca, accused of corruption, were to be held in temporary custody.
In the Senate, liberal Akos Mora resigned, after the National Integrity Agency and the court had declared him incompatible and, one day later, the Senate lifted the parliamentary immunity of two senators involved in the Microsoft case: Social Democrat Ecaterina Andronescu and Serban Mihailescu, member of the National Union for the Progress of Romania. In this case, the National Anti-Corruption Directorate requested the prosecution of 9 former ministers, who, together with the companies involved in the granting of IT licenses for schools, allegedly claimed 20 of the 54 million Euros paid by the Government under the contract. Talking about all these actions aimed at bringing justice, the current head of state, Traian Basescu, has voiced hope that the trend will continue, this being a sign that politicians have finally understood they are not above the law. Traian Basescu:
“ I’m glad that following the election of November 16th, parliamentarians have understood that they do not rule the law, but the law rules them, and they are by no means above the law just because they are members of Parliament.”
In another move, Traian Basescu has recalled that prosecutors have been authorized to start the prosecution of the former Liberal minister Cristian David, accused of taking bribe to use his influence with a local prefect, for a certain person to get 15 hectares of farm land.
