The
\ntrial of the famous Bute Gala case, named after the former great
\nRomanian-Canadian fighter, has reached its end. The High Court of Cassation and
\nJustice Thursday dismissed as unfounded the appeals for annulment filed by the
\nformer minister for development Elena Udrea, and the other defendants.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Elena
\nUdrea was sentenced to 6 years behind bars, the ex-president of the Romanian
\nBoxing Federation Rudel Obreja will have to serve 5 years, and the
\nadministrator of Udrea’s land, 3 years. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The
\nsentences in this case were suspended in December 2018, when the Constitutional
\nCourt ruled that the law had not been observed when the 5-judge panels were
\nformed, and therefore the final ruling in the Bute Gala trial had been passed
\nby an illegal panel. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
In
\ndismissing the appeal for annulment, Romania’s supreme court enforced a
\ndecision of the Court of Justice of the European Union, under which national
\njudges may reverse a Constitutional Court ruling in cases involving frauds in EU
\nspending. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The
\nRomanian judges thus confirmed the precedence of EU law over the national law,
\nby overturning a Constitutional Court ruling. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
In
\nthe Bute Gala trial, Udrea was accused of having coordinated a system through
\nwhich people close to her would receive money from businesses in exchange for timely
\npayments for the services provided to the ministry headed by Udrea. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
According
\nto investigators, the money reached Elena Udrea directly, in cash or as
\npayments for goods or services, or was given to individuals she designated to
\nthis end. Udrea was also accused of prompting other ministry personnel to
\noverstep their powers while procuring advertising services for the Bute Gala
\nevent, which caused losses to the ministry’s budget and brought undue benefits
\nto Rudel Obreja. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
In
\n2018, Elena Udrea received a 6-year prison sentence for bribe-taking and abuse
\nof office, but she fled Romania, to be found and incarcerated later on in Costa
\nRica. She tried to do the same this Thursday, when the final ruling was passed,
\nbut she was caught in Bulgaria. The National Anti-Corruption Directorate had
\nrequested that she be placed under court supervision precisely because of her
\nprevious attempt to dodge the law, however the court dismissed the request. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The
\nend of the Bute Gala trial is by no means the end of Elena Udrea’s judicial
\nproblems. She has also been sentenced by a court of first instance to 8 years
\nin prison for the election campaign of 2009, and she is a defendant in a third
\ncase as well. Ironically, Elena Udrea first rose to power as an advocate of the
\nfight against corruption and the chief aide to ex-president Traian B\u0103sescu, himself
\na champion of the fight for the independence of prosecutors until they started
\nlooking into corruption offences committed by B\u0103sescu’s own inner circle.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The
\nlegacy of the B\u0103sescu regime is rather grim: its number one has recently been
\nconfirmed by Court as a former collaborator of the communist political police,
\nwhile its second in command is someone sentenced for corruption, who tried for
\na second time to evade serving a sentence. (A.M.P.)<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Udrea was sentenced for corruption and once again tried to dodge the law by leaving the country<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":110,"featured_media":91845,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37738],"tags":[31741,30219,35393,28950,37169,37171,29244,31191,36798],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-91844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-in-the-news","tag-abuse","tag-basescu","tag-bribe","tag-corruption","tag-office","tag-politician","tag-president","tag-sentence","tag-udrea"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n