The Bucharest Court of Appeal has rejected on Friday, as unfounded, the appeal filed by the former PM Victor Ponta against the withdrawal of the PhD title, decided by the Education Minister, following the plagiarism verdict regarding his doctoral thesis.
The Bucharest Court of Appeal’s ruling is not final, it can be appealed in five days interval to the Supreme Court, ziare.com reports.
The General Council of the National Council for Attesting Titles, Diplomas and Certificates (CNATDCU) issued a final ruling of plagiarism this summer regarding Victor Ponta’s PhD thesis. On August 1 CNATDCU sent the conclusions to the Education Ministry with the proposal of withdrawing the doctoral title.
Consequently, Education Minister Mircea Dumitru signed the order by which the PhD title has been withdrawn, a title granted by the Bucharest University on December 15, 2003. The minister’s decree read that “the PhD title in law granted to Mr. Victor Viorel Ponta by the University of Bucharest by the order of the Education, Research and Youth Ministry on December 15, 2003 is being withdrawn.”
Former PM Ponta has constantly denied the plagiarism accusations and tried to minimize the relevance of ‘Nature’ magazine’s disclosure, nevertheless by the end of 2014 he tried to give up the PhD title.
Victor Ponta’s scientific advisor for this thesis was former Adrian Nastase, who was prime minister in 2003. Victor Ponta was at that time Secretary of State with the Nastase cabinet.