September 1, 2016 UPDATE

Interior Minister Petre Toba resigns, is prosecuted for corruption offences

Newsroom, 01.09.2016, 00:06

ANTI-CORRUPTION – The Romanian Interior Minister, Petre Toba, resigned on Thursday night, after the National Anti-Corruption Directorate asked the Presidents approval to prosecute him for favouring an offender. Tobă allegedly denied a de-classification procedure for documents requested by investigators in a case in which the former interior minister, Gabriel Oprea, and other Ministry officials are accused of embezzlement. Also on Thursday, the National Anti-Corruption Directorate requested that the Senate be notified on the prosecution of Gabriel Oprea, in a separate case of manslaughter. A police officer died last year in a motorcycle crash, while a member of the motorcade accompanying Oprea during his term in office. Oprea was apparently traveling for personal purposes at the time, which did not entitle him to use a motorcade.

PARLIAMENT – The Parliament of Romania Thursday convened on its second regular session of the year and the last of the 2012-2016 term. According to the leaders of the main floor groups, the list of priorities includes bills in a number of fields, including economy, healthcare and education. Priorities also include a 5% reduction of social security contributions, a law regulating the lawyer profession, a bill allowing indoor smoking and one on prevention in the healthcare sector. Well have details after the news.

MOURNING – Friday is a day of national mourning in Romania, in memory of the victims of the earthquake in Italy and in solidarity with the Italian people. The national flag will fly at half-mast on all public institution buildings, and national radio and television channels and cultural institutions will adjust their programmes accordingly. On Thursday, the eighth of the 11 Romanians who died in the earthquake was repatriated. Previously, the last Romanian citizen who had been missing was found alive. Five other Romanians are still in hospitals in Italy.

OSCE – The Romanian Foreign Minister, Lazăr Comănescu, takes part on Friday in Potsdam, Germany, in an informal meeting of the OSCE foreign ministers. Organised by Germany, which is currently holding the rotating presidency of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the meeting is designed to tackle current security issues, such as the conflict in east Ukraine, migration and terrorism. During the meeting, the head of the Romanian diplomacy will insist on the need to step up the OSCE actions aimed at settling protracted conflicts, and, in the same context, at identifying political solutions to the Transdniester conflict, while observing the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Republic of Moldova.

EXPULSION – The Iraqi citizen Hamad Raad Salih Hamad has been denied access to Romania for 10 years, for national security reasons, under a ruling passed on Thursday by the Bucharest Court of Appeals. According to a news release issued by the Romanian Intelligence Service, the Iraqi citizen who arrived in Romania in 2013 on a student visa had radical religious views, was disseminating jihadist messages and was intolerant of Westerners and Shia Muslims. On Tuesday, the Court of appeals ruled the Pakistani Shahzad Ahmed as persona non grata. The decision was made after the Romanian Intelligence Service found that he had been involved in online propaganda for terror units operating in Pakistan, which supported the supremacy of extremist Islam. Further to that ruling, the Pakistani citizen, who was married to a Romanian woman, was taken into custody and is to be expelled from the country.

MIGRATION – Thirteen Afghan citizens, including 8 underage children, and a Pakistani citizen, were caught by Romanian border police trying to cross illegally into Serbia. The migrants had no identity documents. They said they were trying to reach a Western European country. The Romanian authorities have strengthened security measures on the Serbian border, after in August many small groups of migrants attempted to cross it illegally. Meanwhile, illegal migration on Romanias borders has seen a substantial drop in the past seven months of the year compared to the corresponding period of 2015, by over 40%. Illegal entry or exit attempts have been reported, involving both citizens of Middle East or African states, like Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq and Sudan, and from the Republic of Moldova, Russia, Turkey or Albania.

(translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)