Romanian individual ordeals in the Holy Week

• Ioan Botiş

Eager to prove he was an honorable man, at a time when many people claimed the opposite, the Minister of Labor, Ioan Botiş resigned after the outbreak of the scandal around the hiring of his wife in a European project. Due to the conflict of interest resulting from the fact that the minister"s wife was an advisor on the project "The chance at dignity", financed by the EU and the government, Botiş came to the attention of the inspectors of the National Integrity Agency. The Anti-Fraud Department (DLAF) referred the matter to itself.

Heavily tested by the crisis, PM Emil Boc also made another sacrifice to keep his government going. President Traian Băsescu yesterday signed the decrees confirming the resignation of Ioan Botiş as minister of Labor, and the appointment of PM Emil Boc as interim Minister of Labor.

• Dinel - Nuţu - Staicu

Dinel Nuţu (Staicu) yesterday appeared before a Hungarian judge in wait for the decision of his extradition to Romania. It was eventually decided that the businessman would spend Easter in Hungary, where he would remain under arrest for eleven more days, which would give the Romanian authorities the time to send the warrant for his sentence. The Romanian Police asked the Ministry of Justice to begin the procedure for bringing Dinel Staicu to Romania. Dinel Staicu, who fled the country after being sentenced to seven years in prison, was captured by the police in Hungary, on Tuesday, following a notice from the Romanian Intelligence Service. Dinel Staicu changed his name to Dinel Nuţu, following an administrative request he submitted, which was approved by the Local Council and was published in the Official Gazette of January 10th 2011. On April 3rd, Staicu - Nuţu left the country, precisely one day before being sentenced to seven years in prison concerning the defrauding of the International Bank of Religion.

• Mihai Necolaiciuc

Brought back to Romania earlier this week, after the US Justice Department approved his extradition, the former director of the Romanian National Railway Company Mihai Necolaiciuc, was taken straight to the Court of the 1st District for the confirmation of the arrest warrants issued on his name. It was ruled that Necolaiciuc would be arrested in all three cases debated on Tuesday.

Mihai Necolaiciuc is being tried for causing the company a loss of 70 million Euros. Between 2002 - 2003, Mihai Necolaiciuc, as general manager of the company, signed and placed 23 orders for the purchasing of parts for railway installations, from SC General Com Electrica SA Bucureşti. The orders were signed in violation of the law, and without any documents that would certify the need for those purchases. The supplier was not certified by the Romanian Railway Authority, and the purchases were made without running any public procurement procedures and without concluding any contracts, as required by the law.

• Sorin Ovidiu Vîntu

Preventive custody has now become the norm for Sorin Ovidiu Vîntu. Wednesday evening, he was arrested on blackmail charges by the prosecutors of the Supreme Court, for demanding 150,000 Euros from Sebastian Ghiţă.

On April 19th, 2011, the prosecutors decided to begin prosecution, and on Wednesday, they detained the defendants Sorin Ovidiu Vîntu and Cezar Ion Ilie, on charges of blackmail. The proposal on keeping them in preventive custody for 29 more days was still being discussed before the closing of the edition.

The evidence presented by the prosecutors showed that between March and April 2011, under the threat of unilateral termination of a consulting and management contract, Vîntu demanded 150,000 Euros from Sebastian Ghiţă. Had he refused to pay, Ghiţă would have lost a significant amount of money.

• Nicolae Popa

Nicolae Popa, the former head of Gelsor (FNI) was expected to arrive in Romania last night, on a private plane. This was possible after the president of Indonesia, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, signed the decree for the extradition of Popa on March 22nd. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced, on February 24th, that the case in which Romania was requesting the extradition of Popa was being reviewed by the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights of Indonesia, and that it was expected to take about three months to be extradited. Nicolae Popa was arrested on December 2nd, 2009 by the authorities of Jakarta. In 2006, Popa was sentenced by the Court of Bucharest to 15 years in prison for fraud, together with Ioana Maria Vlas. Popa worked as a director of the Gelsor group of companies and a member of the Board of Trustees of Sov Invest, the company which managed the FNI fund. In 2000, after the outburst of the scandal involving the fund began, Popa fled the country; on January 26th, 2002, an international arrest warrant was issued on his name.

• Marius Petcu

The president of the Sanitas Federation, Marius Petcu had his share of bad news. Yesterday, the unionist was indicted and taken into preventive custody by the prosecutors of the National Anticorruption Department on charges of bribe taking, in an ongoing form. On March 24th, Marius Petcu was caught receiving a bribe of 40,000 Euros, part of the money he had demanded from businessman Petre Scrieciu in exchange for awarding his company the contract for the works at a union-owned center located in Snagov. Petcu told the prosecutors that the 40,000 Euros represented the repayment of a loan. Surprised at his arrest, and he is not the only one, Petcu had the following to say before the judges: "I did so much good to so many over the last 20 years, I wasn"t expecting this". Marius Petcu is one of the richest union leaders: his assets statement mentions five plots of land, three houses, of which a holiday house, jewelry, watches, paintings and valuable icons, major accounts opened with several banks and shares in several companies.