MADE AVAILABLE TO HELLVIG Coldea gets the hiccups

Fugitive Sebastian Ghiţă won one victory last night, when the Romanian Intelligence Service announced, in a press release, that general-lieutenant Florian Coldea will be made available to director Eduard Hellvig. The decision of the SRI came after Sebastian Ghiţă leveled a number of accusations, through recordings broadcasted by România TV, against general Coldea and chief-prosecutor Laura Codruţa Kovesi.

The Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI) made the following statement last night: "Following the information made public concerning general-lieutenant Florian Coldea and which has been subjected to preliminary verifications, the head of the SRI, Mr. Eduard Hellvig, has decided, according to regulations, to create a special commission to investigate any potential violations of the law or of professional deontology.

To that end, until the investigation is complete, general-lieutenant Florian Coldea will be made available to the Director, according to the legal provisions in effect, and the responsibilities of the position of first deputy-director of the Romanian Intelligence Service will be taken over by the Director of the SRI, Mr. Eduard Hellvig. All of the publicly presented circumstances are being investigated, as are the documents made available by general-lieutenant Florian Coldea".

According to some sources, Florian Coldea has not resigned, he has just been suspended, while an internal investigation is conducted. Until the factors which led to his suspension are elucidated, Florian Coldea's salary will be paid by the SRI. He may subsequently be asked to get a new job or be retired, but he may also return to his job.

The operative head of the SRI is not on his first suspension. In May 2007, George Maior, SRI director at the time, announced he would take over the functions of first deputy Florian Coldea until the completion of a common investigation together with the Audit Commission of the Service in the event of the appearance of notes about the three judges of the Constitutional Court.

In April 2007, with the process for the suspension of president Traian Băsescu in full swing, PSD leader, Mircea Geoană presented to the press two reports written by Florian Coldea, on the situation of the dossiers of the three judges from the Constitutional Court of Romania, Aspazia Cojocaru, Nicolae Cochinescu and Ion Predescu. At the time, Geoană accused Coldea of trying to blackmail the judges of the Constitutional Court which had rendered a ruling confirming the legality of the motion to dismiss Traian Băsescu.

At the time, George Maior said that no institution or person, Traian Băsescu himself included, had asked for the investigation of the CCR judges, that the investigation was spontaneous, following standard procedures, which require the Service to refer a matter to itself when there is information about a potential involvement of the SRI in the blackmailing of judges from the Constitutional Court of Romania. He said that the first deputy-director of the SRI has only performed some internal investigations which found that the files of the judges in question, compiled by the former Communist political police, had been sent to the competent institutions.

In the end, the parliamentary commission for the audit of the SRI found that the SRI and Coldea were not guilty of conducting political oppression in that particular case.

Later, in April 2008, president Traian Băsescu promoted Florian Coldea to the rank of squad general (with one star) .

Another scandal caused by two other "notes" signed by Florian Coldea was launched by the Political Investigations Group, led by Mugur Ciuvică, former presidential advisor to president Emil Constantinescu. An internal note of the SRI showed that PNL senator Norica Nicolai was being monitored, and the other concerned an alleged initiative of the PNL to "coagulate a right-wing liberal pole in the Republic of Moldova". According to the law, the beneficiary of those notes would be Traian Băsescu. SRI Director, George Maior, neither confirmed nor denied the authenticity of the two "notes" signed by Coldea, according to information published in the media, and the Parliamentary commission found that the SRI issued 13 such information notes, concerning individuals with liberal affinities, which Traian Băsescu could have used.