Ruling in the Referendum case

The suspended sentence to two years in jail for Social-Democrat leader Liviu Dragnea is still in force

Bogdan Matei, 25.04.2017, 13:30

Legal troubles continue for the strongman in Bucharest, Social-Democrat leader, Liviu Dragnea. On Monday, the High Court of Cassation and Justice dismissed the appeal to execution against last year’s suspended sentence to two years in jail filed by the Social-Democrat president of the Chamber of Deputies, Liviu Dragnea. The ruling is final. Dragnea was convicted for putting in place a system designed to swing the vote in order to achieve the quorum triggering the impeachment of President Traian Basescu in 2012. The quorum was not reached ultimately and so, the referendum was invalidated and Basescu continued to be president of Romania, while Dragnea got a criminal record.

This year, in February, he made a special appeal to the execution of the sentence, meant to reopen the trial. His lawyers demanded the invalidation of the ruling in the “Referendum” case on grounds that two judges on the panel had retired before the motivation was drafted and someone else signed it. Also, they claimed that the legal 30-day deadline for the drafting of the motivation in the file had been exceeded. “Nearly 10 months on, I haven’t got the motivation, which means that the ruling is not complete”, Dragnea said at the time.

Monday’s ruling of the High Court of Cassation and Justice makes the Social-Democrat leader even more vulnerable. Last year, on July 15th, the prosecutors of the National Anti-Corruption Directorate took proceedings against him for incitement to abuse of office and incitement to intellectual deceit in a case where he is accused, jointly with his ex-wife, Bombonica Prodana, of acts perpetrated while he was president of the Teleorman County Council. Investigators argue that he talked several employees of the Social Welfare Department into making fictitious job offers to two members of the Teleorman branch of the Social-Democratic Party. The latter were paid with public money, although their activity served only the party.

Analysts note that, under the criminal law, if Dragnea is convicted again in this new case, he risks serving his original two-year suspended sentence, which would completely remove him from the political scene, over which he has gained the upper hand since the parliamentary elections of December 11th 2016. Under his leadership, the Social-Democratic Party got 45% of the votes, the best result obtained by the left wing in the last 25 years. The membership and programme of the Government made up of the Social Democratic Party and its junior partner, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats, and headed by Social-Democrat Sorin Grindeanu, are an expression of Dragnea’s will. Pundits say that just when Dragnea has reached the pinnacle of his political career, he is more vulnerable than ever before. (translated by A.M. Palcu)