Radio România Internațional

Tag: Bombonica Prodana

  • The legislation on the abuse of office under debate

    The legislation on the abuse of office under debate

    Romanian Justice Minister Tudorel Toader has announced they will set a threshold, which he called “reasonable” for the abuse of office to be considered a crime. He has made the announcement after the Constitutional Court said it was up to Parliament to establish the threshold for the damage caused by the abuse of office.



    The Constitutional Court thus complied with the request made by Bombonica Prodana, the ex-wife of Liviu Dragnea, the leader of the Social Democratic Party, PSD and president of the Chamber of Deputies. Prosecuted for the abuse of office herself in the file on the employment of certain persons at the Social Welfare Department in the Southern Teleorman County while her husband was president of the County Council, Bombonica Prodana had invoked the unconstitutional character of the respective article in the present Criminal Code.



    The judges of the National Anti-Corruption Directorate accuse Liviu Dragnea of incitement to intellectual deceit because he allegedly made the Department officials fictitiously hire two persons, members of the PSD county organization, who were paid with public money though they did a job exclusively for the party.


    Justice Minister Tudorel Toader explains.



    Tudorel Toader: “First, we are waiting for the Constitutional Court’s ruling, its whole motivation, not only for its press release and then we will hold debates with law experts and civil society to see what could be a reasonable threshold bringing the provisions of the Criminal Code in line with the Constitutional Court’s ruling, because there is talk about the obligation of the primary or delegate law maker.”



    On behalf of the magistrates, the president of the High Court of Cassation and Justice, Cristina Tarcea believes that the threshold will have to be established depending on the judges’ estimates on the social danger posed by the respective crime. She makes it clear:



    Cristina Tarcea: “I think it is too early to hold discussions on the level of the fraud because if the Constitutional Court considered a low social danger posed by the crime, for sure the threshold must be relatively low, but if the judges had in mind other aspects, the threshold can depend on what the Constitutional Court judges had in mind.”


    In exchange, the Public Ministry firmly stands against the introduction of a threshold. The general prosecutor, Augustin Lazar, has made it clear that he will not give up that viewpoint, which he has already made known.



    The Ministry’s announcement comes against the backdrop of acute suspicions in society regarding the rulers’ wish to curtail the anti-corruption campaign, which has so far triggered the imprisonment or prosecution of numberless formerly intangible politicians.



    Early this year, the attempt of former justice minister, Florin Iordache, to amend the criminal codes by an emergency ordinance made hundreds of thousands of people take to the streets in the biggest post-communist collective protest in Romania. Eventually, the Government gave up the ordinance and Iordache handed in his resignation.


  • Abuse of office, cap amounts and principles

    Abuse of office, cap amounts and principles

    The Constitutional Court of Romania has rejected the appeal made by Bombonica Prodana, the former wife of the leader of the Social Democratic Party, Liviu Dragnea, against a certain article in the Criminal Code which regulates the abuse of office. The application to challenge the respective article was invoked in a file in which she was prosecuted together with her former husband and several former employees of the Social Assistance Directorate of Teleorman County (in the south). The Court judges decided that it was up to Parliament to regulate the value and the seriousness of the damage caused by the offense.



    Bombonica Prodana made this application in March and her lawyer said the application had to be submitted to the Constitutional Court because, in her case, the damage was below 50,000 euros and so, it should not be considered a criminal case. In the same case Liviu Dragnea was prosecuted for instigation to abuse of office and intellectual forgery. At the time, Bombonica Prodana was employed by the Child Protection Directorate of Teleorman County, an institution subordinated to the Teleorman County Council led by Liviu Dragnea.



    Investigators say that Liviu Dragnea made several employees of the Social Assistance Directorate fictitiously hire two persons who were members of the Social Democratic Party’s local organization in Teleorman. Although the two were working exclusively for the Social Democratic Party, their salaries were paid from public money. If Liviu Dragnea receives a new sentence in this trial, he also risks executing the two-year suspended sentence he received last year in the so-called “Referendum” case.



    This would definitively push him out of the political scene, which he has clearly dominated after the December 2016 elections. In the “Referendum” case, Liviu Dragnea was prosecuted because, in 2012, before and during the unfolding of the referendum for the impeachment of the then president Traian Basescu, he put in place a system, in his capacity as Secretary General of the Social Democratic Party, meant to modify the result of the vote in order to force a quorum which would have led to the president’s impeachment.



    At present, tens of mayors and presidents of county councils have received a sentence or are being investigated by the National Anti-Corruption Directorate for abuse of office. In early 2017 the Government tried to solve their problems. The famous Government decree no. 13 meant to amend the criminal code, which was passed at the end of January and subsequently repealed, stipulated that people could be indicted for abuse of office if the damage caused was of at least 44 thousand euros. This controversial decision then made hundreds of thousands of people take to the streets in what was the largest-scale protest since the fall of Communism in December 1989. (Translated by L. Simion)