Omar Hayssam (photo), the Syrian-born Romanian financier sentenced to 20 years in prison after a Romanian court found him guilty of masterminding the kidnapping of three Romanian journalists in Iraq in 2005 and currently incarcerated at the Margineni Penitentiary in Dambovita, disclosed he had donated medical equipment worth over USD 100,000 to the former Democrat Party. He said he did this at the request of doctor Mohamad Yassin whom he met in 2004 and who asked him to financially support the Democrat Party during the electoral campaigns. Hayssam claims Yassin would have promised him that Traian Basescu “would be willing to speak up for him in order to “solve” his criminal file.
“Mohamad Yassin set himself up as the defender of the citizens of Arab origins in Romania. He told me a big file is in store for me and he offered to solve this problem, claiming he knew Traian Basescu, who would be willing to speak up for me after he was to be elected president. Yassion told me he knew Basescu for a long time, since he was captain and that, Traian Basescu was actually knowing his father who used to work in Tartous port in Syria and used to collaborate in cigarette and alcohol smuggling operations (…)”, reads a message posted on Facebook by Hayssam’s “defence team”.
According to Hayssam, Yassin asked him to leave the Social Democrat Party and to join PD.
“Mohamad Yassin told me that Traian Basescu had given him several houses and business premises while he was Bucharest Mayor. Mohamad Yassion asked me to give up PSD and join PD and financially support the party during the electoral campaigns. I told him I wouldn’t leave PSD, as my position in PSD could not influence the presidential race, but he gave me no choice but financing the Democrar Party,” the message also reads.
Hayssam also said that Yassion used to talk on the phone with Basescu on a daily basis and also with Elena Udrea and Emil Boc. “I decided to donate the Democrat Party medical equipment worth over USD 100,000. I bought this equipment and took it at PD HQs in Modrogan street, together with Mohamed Munaf and Mohamad Yassin,” the Syrian also claims.
Doctor Mohamad Yassin has also been arrested recently after he had allegedly asked EUR 2 M in order to move for obtaining the annulment of Hayssam’s jail sentence.