Friday, October 12, 2007
Romanian President: It is impossible it should have come from me
Yesterday the President of Romania 
Traian Basescu demanded 
PM Calin Popescu-Tariceanu to urgently appoint a competent person to head the Ministry of Agriculture and he warned the PM publicly that the dismemberment of the DNA (National Anti-Corruption Department) would lead to the application of the safeguard clause on Romanian Justice. The government denied such intention at once. The President also announced that he had just signed the decree to suspend agriculture minister Decebal Traian Remes.
President Basescu warned: "It is essential that neither the Romanians nor the authorities in Brussels should take the PM for a politician deadlocking Justice. I am warning him publicly that a measure such as the dismemberment of the DNA may lead to the activation of the safeguard clause on Justice". He mentioned he was expressing such warning because of information claiming the government was intending to do it by means of an emergency ordinance. The President added: "The government is certainly taking efforts to protect present ministers under suspicion". But he apologized, in case the information was not true.
"The President has got no reason for such attitude and his response to the press shows how democratic he is. Such a thing couldn't have happened in a civilized state and I think civil society must react strongly. He is actually sending an undemocratic message to his own electorate, probably also because after the scandal with the reporter from Antena 1 channel his popularity has been growing. After the referendum he has shown a certain nervousness because of failing to capitalize his popularity and overthrow the government. Although not aggressed, he is aggressive, which is impossible to understand. Basescu reiterates offenses against the press, although he enjoyed press support. Things were calm around him that moment and he had no reason to get irritated".
-Ex-PD-Ex-SecrGenPSD.jpg)
Cozmin Gusa, a leader of the National Initiative Party, commented yesterday: "The government is plotting something very serious these days: an emergency ordinance to pass next week and stipulate the unification of the activities performed by the DNA, the Department to Prevent Organized Criminality and Terrorism and the General Information Department in the Ministry of Defense into one single department, to be headed by someone close to the Liberal government, at present an adviser of the interior minister Cristian David".
Camelia Spataru, a spokeswoman for the Romanian government, announced at once that the government had no intention to dismember the DNA, like the President was claiming. She mentioned the government had already denied all press rumor on a "so-called emergency ordinance to dismember the DNA before the President's statement yesterday". The spokeswoman just added: "PM Tariceanu is accepting Traian Basescu's apologizes for releasing untrue information. The sources misinformed him, unfortunately".
Anca Hriban
Ziua friday 12 october 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english
Traian Basescu demanded 
PM Calin Popescu-Tariceanu to urgently appoint a competent person to head the Ministry of Agriculture and he warned the PM publicly that the dismemberment of the DNA (National Anti-Corruption Department) would lead to the application of the safeguard clause on Romanian Justice. The government denied such intention at once. The President also announced that he had just signed the decree to suspend agriculture minister Decebal Traian Remes.President Basescu warned: "It is essential that neither the Romanians nor the authorities in Brussels should take the PM for a politician deadlocking Justice. I am warning him publicly that a measure such as the dismemberment of the DNA may lead to the activation of the safeguard clause on Justice". He mentioned he was expressing such warning because of information claiming the government was intending to do it by means of an emergency ordinance. The President added: "The government is certainly taking efforts to protect present ministers under suspicion". But he apologized, in case the information was not true.
"The President has got no reason for such attitude and his response to the press shows how democratic he is. Such a thing couldn't have happened in a civilized state and I think civil society must react strongly. He is actually sending an undemocratic message to his own electorate, probably also because after the scandal with the reporter from Antena 1 channel his popularity has been growing. After the referendum he has shown a certain nervousness because of failing to capitalize his popularity and overthrow the government. Although not aggressed, he is aggressive, which is impossible to understand. Basescu reiterates offenses against the press, although he enjoyed press support. Things were calm around him that moment and he had no reason to get irritated".
-Ex-PD-Ex-SecrGenPSD.jpg)
Cozmin Gusa, a leader of the National Initiative Party, commented yesterday: "The government is plotting something very serious these days: an emergency ordinance to pass next week and stipulate the unification of the activities performed by the DNA, the Department to Prevent Organized Criminality and Terrorism and the General Information Department in the Ministry of Defense into one single department, to be headed by someone close to the Liberal government, at present an adviser of the interior minister Cristian David".Camelia Spataru, a spokeswoman for the Romanian government, announced at once that the government had no intention to dismember the DNA, like the President was claiming. She mentioned the government had already denied all press rumor on a "so-called emergency ordinance to dismember the DNA before the President's statement yesterday". The spokeswoman just added: "PM Tariceanu is accepting Traian Basescu's apologizes for releasing untrue information. The sources misinformed him, unfortunately".
Anca Hriban
Ziua friday 12 october 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english
Source and evidence
By trying to put the blame for a very severe misdeed on someone else, 
Daniel Morar, a head of DNA (National Anti-Corruption Department), actually put the blame on 
Traian Basescu. In fact, he pointed to the President as the source that unveiled in the open the recording allegedly incriminating minister Remes and ex minister Muresan. While Robert Turcescu, host of the TV talk show, was pressing him, Daniel Morar kept on denying that the documents had leaked to the Romanian Public Television from the prosecutor handling the case or from himself. And this is how the head of the DNA made it plain that the respective document had reached Cotroceni Palace. It is common logic that shows the guilty must be sought for in Cotroceni Palace, at the highest level, since it was not prosecutors who plotted the fake.
According to the law, the release of materials thought to be evidence is sanctioned because the law bans such a practice. There are at least two reasons for it. The unveiling of information is risky for the success of the inquiry and it may jeopardize the prosecutor's work. On the other hand, until the respective information turns into relevant evidence, meaning judicial proves, until the proves become part of an indictment to reach court after the accused has learned about the indictment, to release such information to the public means to break the presumption of innocence, to nail to the wall people who may prove innocent and compromise their honor and public credibility.
In the first case, if the person under watch is indeed guilty, he gets away with it because of procedure break. Therefore the law protects both the progress of investigations and citizens' basic rights. This is why law breaks are severely punished, no matter who commits them. Since the President keeps silent, we can only admit that Daniel Morar is right. Therefore it was from Cotroceni Palace that the information leaked to the Romanian Public Television.
But how come the recording broadcast on this channel last Wednesday had reached Cotroceni Palace ? Why did Daniel Morar send it there and to whom ? We know that the so-called evidence against Remes and Muresan was recorded in the last week of September. And this was the last time the members of the commission established to decide whether certain officials should be investigated or not got together. The commission was suspended because of minister Chiuariu's argument that several commission members were in a conflict of interests. Secondly, the commission was simply dismembered by means of the government's emergency ordinance. Therefore the recording couldn't have been meant for a ghost commission in Cotroceni Palace. Than for whom ?
The answer to this question is the key to several mysteries of the recent past. It was Traian Basescu who started the trend of investigations made on TV, of disclosing information from cases in progress, not part of indictments. While browsing the information he used to get at Cotroceni Palace as head of state, the President broke both the rule of the game and the law several times, by releasing via some press mercenaries information true or faked in order to compromise people he took for adversaries. It has been a kind of ritualistic exercise. Sometimes Traian Basescu made use of such information overtly, in his own statements.
This time it is as clear as daylight that Traian Basescu is the source of this disclosing. And he must be sanctioned for it. But Daniel Morar is guilty too. He too broke the law when providing the President with such documents, since the President hasn't got the constitutional right to stick his nose in criminal cases.
As for
the public television, an institution we pay for, it had no right to participate in obvious manipulation originating from an illegal deed, even if it was the head of state himself who had done it.
Sorin Rosca Stanescu
Ziua friday 12 october 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english
Daniel Morar, a head of DNA (National Anti-Corruption Department), actually put the blame on 
Traian Basescu. In fact, he pointed to the President as the source that unveiled in the open the recording allegedly incriminating minister Remes and ex minister Muresan. While Robert Turcescu, host of the TV talk show, was pressing him, Daniel Morar kept on denying that the documents had leaked to the Romanian Public Television from the prosecutor handling the case or from himself. And this is how the head of the DNA made it plain that the respective document had reached Cotroceni Palace. It is common logic that shows the guilty must be sought for in Cotroceni Palace, at the highest level, since it was not prosecutors who plotted the fake.According to the law, the release of materials thought to be evidence is sanctioned because the law bans such a practice. There are at least two reasons for it. The unveiling of information is risky for the success of the inquiry and it may jeopardize the prosecutor's work. On the other hand, until the respective information turns into relevant evidence, meaning judicial proves, until the proves become part of an indictment to reach court after the accused has learned about the indictment, to release such information to the public means to break the presumption of innocence, to nail to the wall people who may prove innocent and compromise their honor and public credibility.
In the first case, if the person under watch is indeed guilty, he gets away with it because of procedure break. Therefore the law protects both the progress of investigations and citizens' basic rights. This is why law breaks are severely punished, no matter who commits them. Since the President keeps silent, we can only admit that Daniel Morar is right. Therefore it was from Cotroceni Palace that the information leaked to the Romanian Public Television.
But how come the recording broadcast on this channel last Wednesday had reached Cotroceni Palace ? Why did Daniel Morar send it there and to whom ? We know that the so-called evidence against Remes and Muresan was recorded in the last week of September. And this was the last time the members of the commission established to decide whether certain officials should be investigated or not got together. The commission was suspended because of minister Chiuariu's argument that several commission members were in a conflict of interests. Secondly, the commission was simply dismembered by means of the government's emergency ordinance. Therefore the recording couldn't have been meant for a ghost commission in Cotroceni Palace. Than for whom ?
The answer to this question is the key to several mysteries of the recent past. It was Traian Basescu who started the trend of investigations made on TV, of disclosing information from cases in progress, not part of indictments. While browsing the information he used to get at Cotroceni Palace as head of state, the President broke both the rule of the game and the law several times, by releasing via some press mercenaries information true or faked in order to compromise people he took for adversaries. It has been a kind of ritualistic exercise. Sometimes Traian Basescu made use of such information overtly, in his own statements.
This time it is as clear as daylight that Traian Basescu is the source of this disclosing. And he must be sanctioned for it. But Daniel Morar is guilty too. He too broke the law when providing the President with such documents, since the President hasn't got the constitutional right to stick his nose in criminal cases.
As for
the public television, an institution we pay for, it had no right to participate in obvious manipulation originating from an illegal deed, even if it was the head of state himself who had done it.Sorin Rosca Stanescu
Ziua friday 12 october 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english
Suspect no. 1
The President of Romania 
Traian Basescu told the nation that the recording released on the Public Television didn't originate in the presidential safe. Still all the clues show it was him who ordered the plot.
Yesterday morning the President commented that, to the entire political class, he was the "suspect on duty". In the evening he said the evidence had reached his presidential safe, but that it was not him who had disclosed it.
Daniel Morar, a head of the Anti-Corruption Department, also claimed that the evidence had not originated from the institution he ruled and he blamed the progress of the inquiry on his employees. Prosecutors Claudiu Dumitrescu and Lucian Papici had the legal means to search and arrest the agriculture minister Decebal Traian Remes, but they didn't do it, which is unexplainable. They preferred the media show, a political strike for Traian Basescu, to Justice. The result followed at once: minister Remes resigned.
The Superior Council of Magistracy started investigations to detect the source of the leaking information. On the other hand,
Rodica Culcer, a coordinator of the News Department in the Romanian Public Television, says everything was legal and she mentions the Public Television is in the habit of censoring materials.
The National Council for Audio and Visual Media addressed the Prosecutor's Office on the break of human rights and of the Criminal Procedure Code.
As for the international press, there are commentaries on this latest high level corruption case in Romania and on the European Commission's warning about the state of Romanian agriculture. (...)
Razvan Savaliuc
Ziua friday 12 october 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english
Traian Basescu told the nation that the recording released on the Public Television didn't originate in the presidential safe. Still all the clues show it was him who ordered the plot.Yesterday morning the President commented that, to the entire political class, he was the "suspect on duty". In the evening he said the evidence had reached his presidential safe, but that it was not him who had disclosed it.
Daniel Morar, a head of the Anti-Corruption Department, also claimed that the evidence had not originated from the institution he ruled and he blamed the progress of the inquiry on his employees. Prosecutors Claudiu Dumitrescu and Lucian Papici had the legal means to search and arrest the agriculture minister Decebal Traian Remes, but they didn't do it, which is unexplainable. They preferred the media show, a political strike for Traian Basescu, to Justice. The result followed at once: minister Remes resigned.The Superior Council of Magistracy started investigations to detect the source of the leaking information. On the other hand,
Rodica Culcer, a coordinator of the News Department in the Romanian Public Television, says everything was legal and she mentions the Public Television is in the habit of censoring materials.The National Council for Audio and Visual Media addressed the Prosecutor's Office on the break of human rights and of the Criminal Procedure Code.
As for the international press, there are commentaries on this latest high level corruption case in Romania and on the European Commission's warning about the state of Romanian agriculture. (...)
Razvan Savaliuc
Ziua friday 12 october 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english
Evidence case had reached Cotroceni Palace
According to 
Daniel Morar, a head of the DNA (National Anti-Corruption Department), the recording showing the Romanian agriculture minister Decebal Traian Remes taking bribe had not come from the DNA. Last Wednesday the official claimed he didn't know how come the images filmed had reached the Romanian Public Television. He didn't deny that Presidency could be a source, since Presidency had been provided with all the evidence on the case.
The DNA head argued: "I don't know how these images got to the Romanian Public Television. The intercepting was done on grounds of warrants from a judge. To arrange a flagrant is allowed during the preliminary stages too. The case together with all the evidence reached the President of Romania, according to the law". It is to be noticed that he didn't even confirm the images were authentic. He announced there would follow inquiry on the recording broadcast by the Romanian Public Television.
Laura Codruta Kovesi, Romania's general attorney, said yesterday that the opening checks on the way the recording showing minister Remes taking bribe leaked was very important. She mentioned she had asked the DNA head for an account on it. The general attorney commented: "I haven't got all the clues to tell if that recording is authentic or not, if it is part of a criminal case or not".
She claimed she might not give an opinion on the source of the leak, which would become clear after the inquiry was over. As for the idea that one prosecutor might have provided the information and the measures to be taken, Kovesi answered: "In criminal terms, there are no sanctions".
D.E.I.
Ziua friday 12 october 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english
Daniel Morar, a head of the DNA (National Anti-Corruption Department), the recording showing the Romanian agriculture minister Decebal Traian Remes taking bribe had not come from the DNA. Last Wednesday the official claimed he didn't know how come the images filmed had reached the Romanian Public Television. He didn't deny that Presidency could be a source, since Presidency had been provided with all the evidence on the case.The DNA head argued: "I don't know how these images got to the Romanian Public Television. The intercepting was done on grounds of warrants from a judge. To arrange a flagrant is allowed during the preliminary stages too. The case together with all the evidence reached the President of Romania, according to the law". It is to be noticed that he didn't even confirm the images were authentic. He announced there would follow inquiry on the recording broadcast by the Romanian Public Television.
Laura Codruta Kovesi, Romania's general attorney, said yesterday that the opening checks on the way the recording showing minister Remes taking bribe leaked was very important. She mentioned she had asked the DNA head for an account on it. The general attorney commented: "I haven't got all the clues to tell if that recording is authentic or not, if it is part of a criminal case or not".
She claimed she might not give an opinion on the source of the leak, which would become clear after the inquiry was over. As for the idea that one prosecutor might have provided the information and the measures to be taken, Kovesi answered: "In criminal terms, there are no sanctions".
D.E.I.
Ziua friday 12 october 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english
Democrats work on new bill against government
The PD (Democrat Party) and the PLD (Liberal-Democrat Party) are said to be working on a new bill against the ruling government, the Mediafax informs, invoking sources from both parties. The main reason for it is the corruption within the government and the main targets are the 
Romanian PM Calin Popescu-Tariceanu, the labor minister 
Paul Pacuraru, the Justice minister 
Tudor Chiuariu and the now ex agriculture minister 
Decebal Traian Remes.
In order to reach the Parliament a bill against the government needs support from at least a quarter of the Romanian MPs. Therefore the Democrats and the Liberal-Democrats will find it difficult to collect the number of signatures needed, because the Social-Democrat parliamentarians, authors of the last bill against the government, have no longer got the right to sign for support for one more such bill this parliamentary term. Sill the PD leaders are hopeful they will manage to persuade into it the independent MPs and those representing the "Greater Romania" Party and the Conservative Party.
D.I.
Ziua friday 12 october 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english
Romanian PM Calin Popescu-Tariceanu, the labor minister 
Paul Pacuraru, the Justice minister 
Tudor Chiuariu and the now ex agriculture minister 
Decebal Traian Remes.In order to reach the Parliament a bill against the government needs support from at least a quarter of the Romanian MPs. Therefore the Democrats and the Liberal-Democrats will find it difficult to collect the number of signatures needed, because the Social-Democrat parliamentarians, authors of the last bill against the government, have no longer got the right to sign for support for one more such bill this parliamentary term. Sill the PD leaders are hopeful they will manage to persuade into it the independent MPs and those representing the "Greater Romania" Party and the Conservative Party.
D.I.
Ziua friday 12 october 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english
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