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| Top-Level Corruption Cases |
| (2012-02-15) |
| Last updated: 2012-02-16 12:53 EET |
The Romanian High Court of Cassation and Justice has sentenced two former ministers of agriculture to three years in prison each, for corruption. The ruling can be appealed. Decebal Traian Remes was found guilty for influence peddling during his term in office as Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development in 2007.
Ioan Avram Muresan, his colleague in the government during the mandate of the Democratic Convention of 1996-2000 was accused of being an accessory to influence peddling. The key figure in this case is actually a businessman, also accused of being accessory to influence peddling. According to prosecutors, Remes received from that businessman foodstuffs worth 15 thousand Euros, in exchange for favoring his son’s company in winning two land planning tenders.
The businessman also allegedly gave Remes, through the intermediary of Muresan, a luxury vehicle. He turned himself in to the National Anticorruption Directorate after finding he was being wanted by prosecutors anyway. The case became famous after the public TV station showed images of a meeting between Remes and Muresan, in which the latter hands in an envelope to the former. The video recording was accompanied by audio recordings referring to the tenders that were actually the stake in the whole deal.
Back then, when political discourse against corruption was still loud, suspicion that minister Remes had allegedly got sausages and brandy in exchange for favoring certain tenders sounded hilarious, though it triggered many comments on the quality of the political class in Romania. On the other hand, Ioan Avram Muresan is used to cases likely to end bad for him. The former minister has been sentenced to 7 years in prison for abusively approving that fuel from the state reserve be given to a company that did not observe the criteria required.
What has actually changed in the Romanian justice system since 2007, when the dirty affairs involving Remes and Muresan were discovered, is that sentences have started to be issued in cases of top-level corruption. A former Prime Minister, Social – Democrat Adrian Nastase, has been recently sentenced to 3 years in prison for illegal fund raising during the 2004 presidential campaign, which was actually an unprecedented ruling in Romania. Nastase has the right to appeal. He is also being prosecuted for bribe taking in another case.
Along time, the Romanian judiciary has been blamed for not managing to finalize, one way or the other, any of the corruption files involving top-level politicians.
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