Prosecutors revised the legal qualification in the case of former Traian Basescu blackmailing PSD spokesperson Gabriela Firea. Ex-president came at the Prosecutor’s Office upon the Supreme Court on Wednesday and was informed that he is not investigated anymore for blackmail but for threat.
“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 said. The punishment for blackmail is prison time from one year to five years, according to the new Criminal Code.
Judicial source told local media the prosecutors decided to revise the qualification according to the present evidence.
The former Romanian president was welcomed by several persons booing and holding placards reading “Basescu in jail”, “Basescu at Rahova (penitentiary) for what he stole”, but also by several supporters.
Before entering the Prosecutor’s Office, Basescu said he is not nervous. “I am not nervous, you are when you break the law,” he said.
The Prosecutor’s Office upon the High Court of Cassation and Justice decided on March 11 to start the criminal prosecution against Traian Basescu.
MP Gabriela Firea filed a criminal complaint against Traian Basescu in April 2014, but the investigation has been suspended until the end the presidential term. Late last year, the Prosecutor’s Office upon the High Court of Cassation and Justice decided, by order of the prosecutor on the case, to reopen the file on blackmail.
“In the file following the complaint filed by Mrs. Gabriela Firea, the prosecutors of the Department for criminal investigation and forensics have decided by ordinance on March 11, 2015 the further prosecution for Mr. Traian Basescu on committing blackmail. Today, March 18, 2015, Mr. Traian Basescu came to the headquarters of the Prosecutor’s Office of the High Court of Cassation and Justice to be informed about the charges, and his lawyers have called for a consultation period on the file,” a press release informed in March this year.
Basescu – Firea scandal began after the former president said that even now he can say that Gabriela Firea is “a good journalist, but as a jurist she is catastrophic”. “She’d better stand still and take care of what it is happening on her husband’s domain, where he is mayor. Because she might not find him home one day if she is not careful. I understand that plenty of bad things are happening in his courtyard,” said Basescu.
The former head of state also said that the PSD senator Gabriela Firea is “a professional blackmailer”. “There is not an attack against a woman, it’s an attack against a blackmailer who claims to be respected as a Senator of Romania, after she was schooled by Securitatea collaborator Felix,”said Basescu.
Traian Basescu also said that he recommends Prime Minister Victor Ponta not to hire the “blackmailer Senator” Gabriela Firea as spokesperson for the coalition’s elections, because she brings bad luck to the man of whom she says she wants to protect.