Update: Senate Speaker prosecuted. Tariceanu won’t resign

Anti-corruption prosecutors informed on Tuesday that they had started the criminal prosecution against the Senate Speaker Calin Popescu Tariceanu, who is charged with false witness and abetment in crime.

Tariceanu went to the National Anti-corruption Directorate in Brasov to take note of the charges against him. The prosecutors’ suspicions relate to his witness testimony given in the illegal retrocession file of Baneasa Royal Farm and an area of Snagov forest.

Tariceanu was heard as a witness in this case on April 15 this year, with prosecutors claiming there were clues that he would know about the criminal activity of the group prosecuted in this retrocession case, “through the business or friendship relations he had with the members of this group.”

“While being heard on April 15, 2016 in the deposition under oath, he made statements non-compliant with the truth related to the main aspects of the case and did not say everything he knew about the essential circumstances, thus aiming to hinder/ prevent the investigations and the criminal prosecution of the defendants investigated in this file,” reads the DNA press release.

According to the prosecutors, Calin Popescu Tariceanu lied when saying that he didn’t know about the purchase of Paul of Romania’ successional rights by Silberstein Tal, Remus Truică and others and that he had not talked to Remus Truică about notarial fees.

At the same time, Tariceanu would have stated that he had no close relations and did not keep in touch with defendants Dan Andronic and Silberstein Tal and that he had not introduced Tal Silberstein to other Romanian politicians. Prosecutors argue that his statements contradict to the evidence in the file.

No resignation intended

In retort, Calin Popescu Tariceanu said he had no doubt that the criminal prosecution procedure against him would go on, arguing that he is paying for being an ‘inconvenient politician’, also saying that he won’t resign from the Senate Speaker position.

“I am part of the category of the inconvenient politicians, who has the courage to call a spade a spade in a country that would rather be silent,” said Tariceanu, stressing that he doesn’t intend to resign as long as he is not a defendant in the case.

He also says that his hearing in the forest retrocession file was an abuse and that the state institutions have escaped the mandatory civil control.

“I answered the investigators’ questions in good faith despite I have considered my hearing as being a supererogation of the DNA at the best. The indictment of the defendants in this case was concluded before my hearing but somebody wanted to have pictures with the Senate Speaker entering the DNA headquarters (…) I won’t be intimidated by pressures made by those who have compromised and continue to compromise the judiciary and the rule of law. I will fight not to get back to the 50s terror, which, is repeating nowadays,” Tariceanu added.

 Reactions

While the National Liberal Party asked for the Senate Speaker’s resignation, the Social Democrats sprang to his defence.

PNL co-chair Alina Gorghiu expressed hope that Calin Popescu Tariceanu would resign if the prosecutors’ charges certified, adding that the ALDE chair is “a notorious liar” with or without criminal prosecution.

In retort, the deputy secretary general of the Social Democrat Party, Codrin Stefanescu stated that Tariceanu should not resign, arguing that his prosecution is a counter-attack against a man who denounced the fact that state institutions had broken the human rights. Stefanescu also said that certain people pull the strings and have launched a war against the Senate Speaker.

Former PM Victor Ponta also reacted to Tariceanu’s prosecution, saying that in his view, President Klaus Iohannis wants to “get rid” of certain people in the politics and in the state institutions.