Radio România Internațional

Tag: criminal

  • February 8, 2022 UPDATE

    February 8, 2022 UPDATE

    COVID-19 36,269 new SARS-CoV-2 infections were
    reported for the past 24 hours in Romania, along with 193 related fatalities,
    the Strategic Communication Group announced on Tuesday. Since the start of the
    pandemic 2 years ago, more than 2 million Romanians have had the disease and
    over 60,000 died. Meanwhile, since the start of the vaccine roll-out in
    December 2020, over 8 million people have received a full vaccination cycle,
    and 2.4 million have also got the booster dose.


    HEALTHCARE The Romanian health minister Alexandru Rafila will take
    part on February 9-10 in a joint conference of EU foreign and health ministers
    on global health and in an informal meeting of health ministers, due in Lyon and
    Grenoble. According to the ministry, the 2 events are organised by the French
    presidency of the EU Council. The participants will discuss the EU measures to
    support developing countries in accessing medicines in the context of the COVID-19
    pandemic, and to strengthen national healthcare systems. The informal meeting
    of health ministers will focus on the intervention and resilience of public
    health systems in case of crises, and on the joint development of policies to
    create a ‘Union of health.’


    TROOPS A first unit of US troops, deployed in order to strengthen
    the security of Eastern European Allies amid the Ukraine standoff has reached
    Romania, the defence minister Vasile Dîncu announced. He explained that around
    100 experts have arrived in order to prepare the deployment of a larger
    contingent. Early this month, the US announced it would send an additional
    3,000 troops to NATO’s eastern flank, 1,000 of them due to be stationed in Romania.
    France also voiced willingness to send troops to Romania.We will get involved in new missions and take all
    responsibility, with enhanced presence especially in Romania, should this
    decision be made. I reaffirm our solidarity with our European friends in NATO,
    president Emmanuel Macron said. A NATO member since 2004, Romania is already
    hosting 900 troops from the US, 140 from
    Italy and 250 from Poland.


    POLITICS The Prosecutor General’s Office announced on Tuesday that a
    criminal investigation was initiated with respect to Monday’s incident in
    Parliament, where the Romanian energy minister Virgil Popescu was assaulted by
    the co-president of the nationalist opposition party AUR, Deputy George Simion.
    Popescu had previously filed a criminal complaint against Simion. While
    attending a Chamber of Deputies meeting on Monday, the Liberal minister Virgil
    Popescu was insulted and assaulted by Simion. The meeting was suspended, and
    subsequently resumed with only the opposition MPs from AUR and USR in attendance.
    Prosecutors are also investigating Călin Georgescu, rumoured to become the
    honorary president of AUR party. A criminal case was opened against him for
    promoting fascist views and individuals convicted for genocide and war crimes,
    following televised statements Georgescu had made concerning the fascist leader
    Corneliu Zelea Codreanu and the former head of state Ion Antonescu.


    MOLDOVA
    The number of supporters of
    the R. of Moldova’s union with Romania is growing, according to an opinion poll
    quoted by Radio Chişinău on Tuesday. Over 34%
    of the respondents in Moldova would vote in favour of the union, says the poll
    commissioned by IDIS Viitorul in Chișinău and the Institute of Political
    Sciences and International Relations with the Romanian Academy. This is a
    record-high number of union supporters, over 10 times higher than in 2010. According
    to the same poll, which focused on citizens’ perception of the relations
    between Moldova and Romania, over 62% of the people with dual citizenship would
    vote for the union. However, in the case of new tensions similar to the one in
    Ukraine, more people would back a military alliance with Russia (22.5%) than
    with Romania (12.5%). (A.M.P.)

  • Criminal charges after Piatra Neamț tragedy

    Criminal charges after Piatra Neamț tragedy

    The General Prosecutor’s Office
    brought formal charges against 10 people, 6 of them successive interim managers
    of the hospital in Piatra Neamţ (north-eastern Romania) which burned down last
    year, killing 10 Covid patients.


    The tragedy took place at the
    intensive care unit of the Emergency County Hospital, where 17 patients had
    been admitted in 2 wards. An anaesthetist who went into one of the burning wards
    trying to rescue patients suffered severe burns and had to be transferred to
    Brussels.


    The charges include manslaughter,
    bodily harm out of negligence, aggravated destruction out of negligence, and
    failure to observe workplace security and protection rules.


    Agerpres news agency reports that 2
    nurses have been accused of leaving an open fire source unattended, while the
    head of the intensive care unit is accused of having failed to take measures to
    ensure ventilation. The ICU chief is also accused of having forged a memo
    regarding the care provided to patients, jointly with another physician.


    Legal action was also brought
    against the hospital itself. Prosecutors argue that after the pandemic was
    declared and the hospital was turned into a COVID support unit, the hospital
    management failed to organise hospital activity properly. Specifically, the
    management did not review workplace health and security risks after the amount
    of oxygen administered to patients in that unit was increased, and implicitly
    the oxygen concentration in the 2 wards rose. The defendants also failed to
    introduce prevention measures to ensure workplace security under the new
    circumstances.


    The investigation revealed that the 2
    nurses on duty at the time, who were attending patients under oxygen therapy, left
    a lit candle unattended. This was the original source of the fire that burned
    the intensive care unit.


    Similar tragedies have also taken
    place this year in Bucharest and Constanța (south-east). (tr. A.M. Popescu)

  • 1-7 March, 2021

    1-7 March, 2021


    Parliament endorses state budget for 2021


    After fiery debates, with allegations and retorts flung back and forth between Power and Opposition, the state budget and social security budget bills for this year were endorsed by Parliament as drafted by the government. The MPs dismissed the thousands of amendments tabled by the Social Democrats and AUR party in opposition, which in turn accused the Government of discriminating in favour of the agencies run by their own people and of failing to implement previous legislation increasing pensions and child allowances.



    This is a novelty, PM Florin Cîţu said in turn, arguing that the dismissal of all of the Oppositions amendments was among other things a test of the unity of the ruling coalition. According to the PM, the budget focuses on investments, economic recovery, and the restructuring of public institutions.



    High-profile cases on trial


    The former Minister for Development, Elena Udrea, and the daughter of Romanias ex-president Traian Băsescu, Ioana Băsescu, were sentenced this week to 8 and 5 years behind bars, respectively, for money laundering and inciting bribe-taking. They had been indicted in a case that looked into the funding of the election campaign of the former president back in 2009. The ruling is not final.



    Another case tried this week concerned the anti-governmental protests of August 10, 2018. Under a final ruling, the Bucharest Court dismissed prosecutors request to reopen the criminal case against the heads of gendarme forces, accused of a disproportionately brutal response to the rally. Shortly after the court decision was made public, the closing of the “August 10 case turned into a dispute between magistrates and some politicians, discontent with the ruling. President Klaus Iohannis himself urged the Justice Minister Stelian Ion to provide explanations for this course of events. “Things cannot end here, the head of state argued.



    The Higher Council of Magistrates declined taking a public stand on the issue, as the justice minister had requested, but instructed the Judicial Inspection Corps to check all public statements concerning the investigation, in order to safeguard the independence, impartiality and professional reputation of judges and prosecutors.



    In a first stage, last June, the Directorate Investing Organised Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) had closed the case on the August 10 protest, including the investigation against the gendarme chiefs, and the allegations of attempted coup. Later on, the former head of DIICOT ordered the reopening of criminal investigations into the gendarme chiefs.



    Romanian Police in action


    Over the past few days, the work of Romanian Police officers has once again come under scrutiny, after previous inefficient interventions and less-than-honourable conduct. Two workers redecorating a flat in the town of Onești, Bacău County (east), were murdered on Monday by the former owner of the apartment, angry for being evicted a few years before. The police opened fire in order to get into the flat where the man was keeping the 2 hostages, after negotiations between the perpetrator and the officers failed. The Interior Ministry promised a comprehensive report on the case, amid suspicions of police breach of duty. The chiefs of the county and local police forces were replaced, and the Prosecutors Office was requested to probe into suspected negligence.



    Also this week, workers from a police unit in Bucharest were detained under the charge of having tortured 2 young men last year who had reprimanded them for not wearing face masks and for issuing illegal fines.



    Not least, investigations are under way with respect to a search conducted by Transport Police on Wednesday near Bucharest at a different address than the one stipulated in the warrant. The police went to the wrong address and threatened to kill the innocent landlady and her daughter.



    Covid-19


    The third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic is gaining strength in Romania, where the number of infections in 24 hours is on the rise. The vaccine rollout pace on the other hand is also increasing. The number of people having received at least one dose of the vaccine has gone over 1 million this week.

    Romanian film wins Golden Bear

    Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn, the most recent film of Romanian director Radu Jude, has won the Golden Bear at the 71st edition of Berlin International Film Festival – Berlinale, held in an online format. The film looks into the relations between the individual and society when the leaked sex video of a school teacher goes viral on the Internet, turning her life upside down. It is an elaborated film as well as a wild one, clever and childish, geometrical and vibrant, imprecise in the best way. It attacks the spectator, evokes disagreement, but leaves no one with a safety distance, the jury said about Jude’s film. The win comes six years after the director won the Silver Bear for his film Aferim!.(tr. A.M. Popescu)

  • November 17, 2020

    November 17, 2020

    COVID-19 Romania reports the highest SARS-CoV-2 test positivity rate in 24 hours: over 43%. On Monday the authorities announced 4,931 cases out of around 11,200 tests. The total number of cases since the start of the pandemic in late February is now over 365,000. With the 149 deaths reported on Monday, the death toll exceeds 9,000, whereas the number of patients in intensive care is now 1,187. Nearly 70% of the total number of patients have recovered. As of today, 5 towns and a village in Alba County, central Romania, are under a 2-week lockdown because of the large number of coronavirus infections. Also as of today, Constanta city in the south east is closing parks and playgrounds, and streets, pavements and market places will be disinfected on a daily basis. The city of Sibiu (centre) and 3 other localities in the same county also introduced a lockdown on Monday, while the city of Bistriţa (centre) is waiting for approval from the National Public Health Institute to implement the same measure.



    FIRE Investigators have completed inquiries into the fire that occurred on Saturday at the ICU of the Piatra Neamt County Hospital, treating Sars-Cov-2 patients. The criminal case concerns manslaughter and bodily harm offences, as 10 people died and 7 others were injured. Five of the victims could not be identified and DNA tests were required. Doctor Ioan Cătălin Denciu remains in a serious condition—he tested positive for COVID-19 prior to being transferred to Belgium, and the injuries are more severe than originally thought. The physician has 2nd degree burns on 75% of the body, which he suffered while trying to rescue the patients from the intensive care unit during the fire. The manager of the Piatra Neamţ Hospital has resigned. Joint teams from Public Health Directorates and the General Inspectorate for Emergencies have been conducting inspections, since Monday, in all intensive therapy units across the country, to check electrical installations and the state of medical equipment. The health minister Nelu Tătaru says many hospitals underwent rushed revamping in 2020, and now the authorities have to check whether safety rules were complied with.



    UNIONS Members of the SANITAS healthcare workers union Tuesday observed a moments silence for the victims of the Piatra Neamt hospital fire, in front of the Government headquarter. SANITAS had scheduled a rally for Tuesday, but the union decided to replace the protest with a commemoration of the victims and of the healthcare workers who lost their lives on the job. Unionists warn that the tragedy may occur again, anywhere in the country, because of the worn out equipment and overworked personnel. They call on civil society to put pressure on politicians to reform the Romanian public healthcare sector. SANITAS officials Monday submitted a list of demands to all county prefect offices.



    GAUDEAMUS The 27th edition of the Gaudeamus Book Fair organised by Radio Romania since 1994, is taking place online until November 22nd. The event will end on Sunday and will take place exclusively online due to the new coronavirus pandemic. Attending the event are more than 100 companies, among which prestigious book publishers and distributors, music and educational games producers. Hundreds of events can be followed online on gaudeamus.ro, the website of the event, which this year is organised jointly with elefant.ro. Writer Norman Manea, nominated several times for the Nobel Prize for Literature, is the honorary president of this edition of the Gaudeamus book fair.



    MOLDOVA The Republic of Moldovas ex-PM, the Pro-European Maia Sandu, is the first woman elected president of the country. In Sundays ballot she won 57.75% of the votes, according to the final data announced by the Electoral Committee in Chişinău. The incumbent president, pro-Russian Igor Dodon, who got 42%, announced however he was challenging the result. Maia Sandus priorities include ending corruption and public money theft and reforming the political class. The election result is a moral victory of pro-European forces which want genuine change, political commentators in Chisinau say. However, they warn that a tense period may follow, because Igor Dodons Socialists hold the largest number of seats in Parliament. (translated by A.M. Popescu)

  • August 5, 2019 UPDATE

    August 5, 2019 UPDATE

    INVESTIGATION In Caracal, southern Romania, searches continued on Monday at the home of Gheorghe Dincă, the man who claimed, after being apprehended more than a week ago, that he had killed 2 teenagers, 15-year old Alexanda Măceşanu and 18-year old Luiza Melencu. The investigators, who followed a new lead indicated by Gheorghe Dinca, found fragments of burnt bones and ashes in a bag, in a forest near Caracal. Dinca claims the remains belong to Luiza. Over the past few days, new biological samples were collected from the mans home and courtyard. The investigation now focuses on finding new clues to confirm that Luiza Melencu, missing since April, has been in Dincas house. The Directorate Investigating Organised Crime and Terrorism, in charge of the case, announced that the ash taken from Dincas residence showed traces of Alexandra Măceşanus DNA, the girl who went missing on July 24th and who called the emergency services the next day. The response of the authorities was too late, which led to a number of resignations and dismissals.




    EU Romania ranks 2nd in the EU, on a par with Portugal, in terms of a positive public image of the EU, indicates a new Eurobarometer poll made public on Monday. The number of Romanians having a positive view of the European bloc has grown to 60%, above the EU average of 44%. The new poll shows a strong increase in citizens positive perception of the EU in all areas, from economy to the state of democracy. These are the best Eurobarometer results since June 2014. Also, 52% of the Romanians have confidence in the EU, as against a 44% average in Europe. Some of the main findings of the Eurobarometer also include record-strong support for the single currency and a focus on climate change, as the 2nd biggest concern at EU level, after immigration.




    MOLDOVA The General Prosecution of the Republic of Moldova Monday opened a criminal case in which Vlad Plahotniuc is probed into for usurping power in June 2019. A group of prosecutors will look into the events of June 7th to 9th, when former Democratic leader Vlad Plahotniuc and judges with the Constitutional Court approved rulings, decisions and resolutions contrary to the Constitution of Moldova, in order to enable the Democrats to stay in power abusively. Sworn in by Parliament on June 8th, the new Government in Chisinau, headed by the pro-European Maia Sandu, only managed to take office in mid-June, after a deadlock cause by the previous, leftist government controlled by tycoon Vladimir Plahotniuc, who refused to relinquish power.




    FESTIVAL Sfântu Gheorghe, in the Danube Delta, south-eastern Romania, is hosting as of Monday the 16th Anonimul International Independent Film Festival. The official opening included the screening of the latest film by director Jim Jarmusch, The Dead Don’t Die, launched at this years official Cannes competition. Six foreign and Romanian feature films take part in the official competition. The special guest of this years edition is Ukrainian director, Sergei Loznitsa, winner of the Cannes 2018 “Un Certain Regard award. He will receive the “ANONIMUL Award for his contribution to world cinema. A retrospective of his works will be followed by Q&A sessions. The festival also includes, until August 11, screenings of films awarded in other festivals, talks with filmmakers and film critics, Q&A sessions with production teams. A section entitled Fluidități will screen 4 documentaries on art, discussing topics like the fine arts, music, cultural traditions and crafts.


    (translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)

  • Constitutional Court dismisses changes in criminal legislation

    Constitutional Court dismisses changes in criminal legislation

    The changes operated by Parliament on the Criminal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure come against the Constitution, the judges of the Constitutional Court decided unanimously on Monday. The reason put forth by the Court was that Parliament did not comply with its obligation to bring these changes in line with previous Constitutional Court rulings. The Constitutional Court had postponed a ruling in this respect 7 times, before reaching Mondays decision.



    The changes in question include, among others, a considerable reduction of prescription periods for offences posing high social threats, concurrently with a reduction of special prescription periods to a half. Also halved were the penalties for embezzlement and abuse of office, if offenders cover the damages before a final ruling is passed. Criminal negligence was also decriminalised under the proposed legislation.



    As for the Code of Criminal Procedure, changes concerned, among others, the intelligence obtained under national security warrants, which was to no longer be used by courts of general jurisdiction even in corruption, rape or murder cases. Other changes were intended to forbid prosecutors from collecting evidence in a search, if the evidence concerns another offence than the one for which the search warrant has been issued, and to invalidate reports to the authorities against an offender, if the offence is older than one year.



    It was President Klaus Iohannis and the Save Romania Union and National Liberal Party in opposition that challenged these changes at the Constitutional Court. They argued that through the bills passed by the parliamentary majority made up of the Social Democratic Party and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats, more than 300 damaging changes are operated on the Romanian criminal legislation.



    Klaus Iohannis welcomed the Courts decision, and urged Parliament to dismiss all the attempted changes of the criminal law and to cancel the changes already operated on the justice laws. In turn, the Liberal Party president Ludovic Orban asks Parliament to reject the new criminal codes as a whole, and if necessary to operate any subsequent adjustments through a new bill, following public consultation and debate. Along the same lines, Save Romania Union requests that police chiefs be appointed based on their merits.



    Meanwhile, the leaders of the ruling coalition announced they were working on an emergency government order to improve the legislative framework. The Social Democratic Party and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats decided to call a special parliamentary session, and PM Viorica Dancila promised that her Cabinet will waste no time.



    The Constitutional Court ruling against the modified criminal laws was also covered in international media. Reuters reports that since taking power in 2016, the Social Democratic government has operated a number of legislative and staff changes seen as threats to the independence of the judiciary and causing concern in the European Union, the US State Department, and among thousands of Romanian magistrates, whereas the Venice Commission requested the annulment of these changes.


    (translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)

  • May 10, 2019 UPDATE

    May 10, 2019 UPDATE

    JUDICIARY The President of Romania Klaus Iohannis Friday referred the new changes of the Criminal Code and Code of Criminal Procedure to the Constitutional Court. The head of state argues that the Constitution and the principle of bicameralism have been breached, and says that a previous Constitutional Court ruling, which had found the modified criminal legislation to be against the Constitution, was not implemented. The changes were adopted in April by the Chamber of Deputies, the decision-making body in this respect, and included a number of articles criticised by the National Liberal Party, Save Romania Union and Peoples Movement Party in opposition, but green-lighted by the Constitutional Court. Some of them are reduced statutes of limitations for criminal liability, the introduction of a one-year deadline to report bribe-giving and influence peddling, full decriminalisation of negligence and halved punishments for embezzlement and abuse of office.




    ROYALTY DAY Royalty Day was celebrated in Romania on May 10, recalling three crucial events that helped shape the Romanian modern state. On May 10, 1866, Carol, of the Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen family, was sworn in, before the Romanian Parliament, as ruler of Romania, thus laying the foundation of the dynasty. On May 10, 1877, Carol I proclaimed Romania’s independence from the Ottoman Empire, and four days later he was crowned king. The events marking Royalty Day started with a military ceremony at King Carols statue in Bucharest. Guests from Romania and the Republic of Moldova later took part in the Garden Party held at the Elisabeta Palace, the Bucharest residence of the Royal House of Romania. The last sovereign of Romania, King Michael I, died on December 5, 2017, at the age of 96, and was buried on December 16, in Curtea de Arges. The first-born of his five daughters, Princess Margareta, became the custodian of the Crown of Romania.




    POLICE Six Romanian police officers are on a support mission in the Czech Republic until July. This is the first mission of this kind, and it has been requested by the Czech police, reads a news release issued by the Romanian Police Inspectorate General. The Romanian officers will assist Romanian citizens in relation with the Czech authorities, take part in joint patrol activities in order to prevent crime and ensure public order and security in the industrial areas in the Czech Republic. At present, 23 Romanian police are on operative support missions in 5 other countries: France, the UK, Switzerland, Italy and Germany.




    EXTRADITION The Romanian Justice Ministry is working on immediate measures for the extradition of the former mayor of Constanta, Radu Mazăre, from Madagascar. The interim Justice Minister Ana Birchall said on Friday that Romanian authorities may request Mazǎres extradition because the Republic of Magadascar is a signatory of international conventions against corruption. The former mayor was arrested in Madagascar of Wednesday and is to remain in the custody of the local authorities for 6 days, under a search warrant sent by Romania via the Interpol. In February, an international search warrant was issued against Mazǎre, after he received a 9-year prison sentence in a case involving the fictitious return of several plots of land to former owners. The ex-mayor left Romania in December 2017, claiming political pressure affected the criminal investigations concerning him.




    TENNIS The Romanian tennis player Simona Halep, no 3 in the world, has qualified into the Madrid finals. On Friday Halep defeated Belinda Bencic (18 WTA) 6-2, 6-7, 6-0, in the tournament quarter-finals. The Romanian player won the Madrid Open twice, in 2016 and in 2017.



    (translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)