The fairness of the election campaign, which ensured president
\nTraian Basescu a second term in office, was questionable since its early days in
\n2009. Some answers to the questions raised by the 2009 presidential campaign
\nwere provided on Tuesday, when, after many years of delay, the Romanian justice
\nissued heavy prison sentences in a file on the funding procedures of the
\naforementioned campaign. <\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
So, the former president’s aide Elena Udrea, got an 8-year
\nprison sentence, while Ioana Basescu, the president’s eldest daughter, was
\nsentenced to five years in prison for money laundering and inciting to bribery.
\nThe investigations carried out by anti-corruption prosecutors have also
\nrevealed other crimes such as, abuse of office, fraud and awarding public
\ncontracts in exchange for supporting the election campaign. <\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
More than 300 thousand euros are said to have been
\nobtained in this fashion. However, the two ladies accused have repeatedly
\ndenied allegations and the former Minister of Development said she was shocked
\nby the verdict, which she considers unfair. I didn’t kill anyone, didn’t rape
\nanyone, didn’t take the money at home, Elena Udrea went on to say. <\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The sentence is not definitive and could be appealed.
\nHowever, the situation is different in another major file, that caused by the August
\n10th 2018 protest in Bucharest against the then PSD government.
\nThrough an immutable ruling, the Bucharest court turned down a DIICOT request
\nfor reinitiating criminal procedures in a file caused by the allegedly
\ndisproportionate intervention of the riot police against the protesters. DIICOT
\nhad initially closed the file in June last year, dropping charges against the
\ngendarme chiefs as well as the inquiry into an alleged coup d’etat. The former
\nchief prosecutor of DIICOT eventually ordered the resumption of criminal
\ninvestigation in the case of the former gendarme chiefs. <\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
However, the Bucharest Court’s ruling has enraged the
\nrepresentatives of several civil society organisations who threatened to bring
\nthe case before the European Court of Human Rights. <\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
(bill) <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Prison sentences have been given in the file on funding the 2009 election campaign in Romania<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":109,"featured_media":82962,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37738],"tags":[30219,30742,40197,37173,36798],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-88258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-in-the-news","tag-basescu","tag-diicot","tag-elena","tag-traian","tag-udrea"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n