Supreme Court compels DNA to conclude Gigina case by May 1
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The High Court of Cassation and Justice (Romania’s Supreme Court) has ruled on Thursday that the National Anti-corruption Directorate (DNA) must conclude investigation in the case of policeman Bogdan Gigina’s death by May 1. Former Interior minister Gabriel Oprea is criminally investigated in this file for manslaughter.
Bogdan Gigina died in a car accident while leading the former Interior minister Gabriel Oprea’s motorcade in the autumn of 2015.
About two weeks ago, the dead cop’s parents filed a complaint to the Supreme Supreme against the anti-corruption prosecutors, accusing them of delaying the investigation in this case.
On Thursday in court, Bogdan Gigina’s father stated that fomer minister Oprea was a “god” and everybody “feared him”.
“He used to give all commands, no subordinate could move a thing. Everybody feared him. He was interested in traveling fast, that’s why a motorcycle had been asked to open his motorcade in the past three months (before the accident),” Gigina’s father, also a former cop, told judges.
On the other side, DNA argued the investigations have been delayed for they have been waiting for the declassification of some documents and because the parties have asked that a high number of people should come in court to testify.
DNA claims that at the moment of the accident, Bogdan Gigina was part of the motorcade accompanying former minister of Interior, Gabriel Oprea. The motorcade consisted in a traffic outrider, Bogdan Gigina and a police vehicle. At that moment, Oprea was returning home in Cotroceni district.
DNA claims that there are clues that Oprea has broken the legal provisions when asked for a motorcade on a regular basis.
According to the anti-corruption body, minister Oprea used to have five daily rides accompanied by the traffic police crews, which “was about three times more than the rides made for Romania’s President and twice more than the rides of the premier, the high ranking officials who were entitled to have motorcades on a regular basis according to legal provisions.”
Prosecutors have been investigating this case for more than two years.
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