Former president Traian Basescu came to the Prosecutor’s Office upon the Supreme Court on Friday, as he was subpoenaed to give a statement in the file in which he is charged with threatening social democrat spokeswoman Gabriela Firea. When leaving, Basescu said he had only done a simple thing and that he would keep on defending himself.
In retort, Firea’s lawyer Lucian Bolcas said before the hearing that “it’s a normal procedure of hearing a defendant like any other ones on the same kidney.”
Asked what he thought Basescu would told investigators, Bolcas answered: “Stories”, adding that Basescu doesn’t know himself “what more to tell”, but he would have to explain why “the statement to senator Firea that she wouldn’t find her husband at home doesn’t represent a threat.”
“I think it’s a very important day, one must know there are two categories of persons: some representing civilization and decency, and others representing what Octavian Paler used to name as ‘redneck’,” Bolcas said.
Prosecutors also subpoenaed former Romanian president last week, on September 2 to inform him they revised the legal qualification from blackmail to threat in this case.
“It’s not blackmail anymore, it’s threat, a crime that is punished with fine or jail time up to one year. That means that, little by little, the justice comes near the truth,” Basescu used to say then. The punishment for blackmail is prison time from one year to five years, according to the new Criminal Code.