File on Călin Popescu-Tariceanu – ICCJ in pronouncement until May 22. DNA prosecutors request three years in prison

The last hearing in the file in which Senate Speaker, Calin Popescu-Tariceanu, is judged for false testimony and favouring the offender took place on Tuesday at the High Court of Cassation and Justice (ICCJ – Supreme Court). After the hearings and the pleadings of the lawyers, the court remains in pronouncement until May 22.
Calin Popescu Tariceanu’s lawyer has demanded the renouncement to all the evidence that the DNA prosecutors obtained during 2008 -2014, the reasons being related to decisions of the Constitutional Court and ECHR on private life and on conducting tapping motivated by national security mandates, stiri.tvr.ro informs.
After the debates, the lawyers’ pleadings followed and the court remained in pronouncement until May 22.
The National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) prosecutor has demanded that Tariceanu be sentenced to three years served in prison for false testimony, hotnews.ro reports.
“We believe that beyond any doubt, the offense of false testimony is clear, for which we are calling for the three-year serving sentence,” the DNA prosecutor said in court.
The Senate Speaker, present on Tuesday at the High Court, refused to make any statements before the court hearing, ignoring the journalists.
Calin Popescu-Tariceanu was sued by the DNA on July 7, 2016 for a false testimony and favouring the offender.
According to the DNA, in the framework of the investigation papers on the unlawful restitution of a plot of land in the Snagov forest and the Baneasa Farm, Tariceanu, on oath, on April 15, 2016, made statements non-compliant with the truth in regard to the essential aspects of the file on which he was asked and did not say everything he knew about essential circumstances, thus preventing/hindering the prosecution from investigating the defendants in the file.
The prosecutors argue that Tariceanu unrealistically claimed that he had no knowledge of the retrocession to Paul Philippe of Romania (aka Paul Lambrino) of plots of land in Baneasa (the former royal farm) and Snagov, about the involvement of defendants Tal Silberstein, Beny Steinmetz, Moshe Agavi and other persons in the restitution proceedings, nor about the sale/purchase acts for these goods.
The anti-corruption prosecutors accused the Senate Speaker in February 2017 that he has lied when he had been heard in the file related to Snagov forest and Baneasca Farm retrocession. The prejudice in this case is assessed to EUR 135,874,800.
Calin Popescu Tariceanu was sent to court on July 7, 2016 for two charges: false testimony and abetment to crime.
Former presidential aide during the mandate of Emil Constantinescu, Dorin Marian, also former head of Chancellery while Tariceanu was prime minister, was also charged in this retrocession file for false witness.