The Sausage Case

Really, you couldn't make it up... Two former Romanian Agriculture Ministers, Decebal Traian Remes and Ioan Avram Muresan, were sentenced yesterday to three years in prison without parole for corruption (bribes and influence-peddling) in what has become known as The Sausage Case. The High Court's decision is final. According to the DNA prosecutor’s indictment, on 13th and 23rd September 2007, Remes, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development at the time, received promises for mici and palinca worth 1,500 RON (wow! How much mici and palinca could you get for that sum? Just sayin'...) plus 15,000 euros ($21,000) from Muresan on behalf of businessman Gheorghe Ciorba for helping his son win two public auctions. An Audi Q7 car also features on the list of swag. Ciorba, however, reported the bribe to authorities before the auctions could take place, triggering the prosecution of Remes and Muresan. Ciorba, for his part, received an 18-month suspended prison sentence yesterday. Pretty mind-boggling really - he was the one who set the bribe in the first place and then snitched - and for all that, he gets off with less than Remes and Muresan...

(Image source) There is a little background to give you before continuing.

Back in 2007, **a privacy bill was passed that many said would squash efforts to fight corruption. This bill aimed at jailing anyone caught releasing contents of intercepted conversations. Interestingly enough (or not as the case may be), the aforementioned bill was passed just weeks before TVR broadcast a video on October 10th of the then-Agriculture Minister Decebal Traian Remes accepting a bribe. Some said that the country's political leaders appeared more anxious to punish investigative journalists than to deal with the corruption at hand.

When the scandal broke, Remes resigned. The video also implicated the previously cited former Agriculture Minister Ioan Muresan and Gheorghe Ciorba.

SE Times described what happened:

'A hidden camera recorded a meeting in a Bucharest cafe between Remes and Muresan, during which Muresan gave Remes an envelope. The TVR broadcast also included taped phone conversations with Ciorba, who is heard saying he wanted to win tenders worth millions of euro in institutions that were co-ordinated by Remes.

In the phone calls, Ciorba asked Muresan to be an intermediary with Remes, offering 15,000 euros, traditional sausages and a new car.

After the broadcast aired, Remes was asked to leave office by Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu, while authorities began investigating the source of the story. "It appears that the images were produced by the organisation that was investigating the case," Tariceanu said.'

(Photo source: Decebal Traian Remes) For many, it was considered normal that TVR had broadcast the video, enabling people to see exactly for whom they had voted. Others said the video should have been 'balanced before showing', for in fact, it was 'a bomb'. I don't honestly think anyone was the least bit surprised to unearth yet another pair of crooks, one in government and one an ex. For Remes to have refused the money would have been far more of a surprise.

The US Ambassador to Romania at the time, Nicholas Taubman, was scandalised by the criticism TVR received for the broadcast and called on parliament not to "intimidate" independent media or "criminalise" journalistic efforts. In 2013, nothing much has changed for journalists are still intimidated for revealing such cases.

This, along with last year's Nastase case, is one of the reasons why Transparency International, an NGO based in Berlin, has ranked Romania one of the most corrupt countries in the EU.

(Photo source: Ioan Avram Muresan) Romania Insider reports that Muresan is already in the clink, sentenced in June 2012 to seven years for embezzlement. He's quite a character, our Muresan. Nine O'Clock states that he is 'most likely to apply for the two sentences to be merged into one. If his application is accepted, he will serve the longer of the two sentences.' 

Meanwhile, Remes generously gave himself up to the Maramures Police yesterday. He was sent home, however, since the detention documents hadn't yet shown up.... Remes, continues Nine O'Clock, 'will only stay behind bars for one year, since, like Adrian Nastase, he will be able to benefit from stipulations in the Penal Code and the Code of Penal Proceedings that state a male of over 60 years old and good behaviour while in detention may be released having served one-third of his prison time.' If anyone can explain the justice in that, I'm all ears.

**The politician privacy bill was first submitted to parliament in April 2004 but rejected due to protests, only to be adopted in 2007. For more on that, please see HERE.