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The "Belina" case, involving two Government ministers - Deputy Prime Minister Sevil Shhaideh and Minister-delegate for European Funds Rovana Plumb - was opened in May 2017, not in 2014, as rumours in the public sphere have it, Laura Codruta Kovesi, Chief prosecutor of the National Anti-corruption Directorate (DNA), stated on Monday. "The case does not date from 2014, this case was opened in May 2017. We are in September, so for four-five months we have compiled the first documents and carried out the first investigations. (...) We can take notice from the press whenever we have clear clues that a criminal deed has been committed. The media merely reporting that an emergency ordinance was given doesn't mean that a criminal deed occurred in that case. (...) When the first pieces of information came that a criminal deed of DNA competence was committed, regarding the adoption of an emergency ordinance, we took note ex officio, and this surfaced in May 2017. So it is out of the question that we might have known ever since 2014," Kovesi stated for Europa FM.
Asked how she responds to the allegations launched in the public sphere, that this case attempts to "destroy" the Government and the Social Democratic Party (PSD), the DNA Chief prosecutor replied: "There is no such thing". "We have fulfilled our attributions prescribed by the law, what is DNA supposed to be doing? To investigate high level corruption. We investigated a corruption deed, we pressed charges, it is an intermediate stage, we are investigating these allegations. We are a filter which checks, before reaching the court, if there is or there isn't any evidence. If there is proof, we send the cases in court, if there is no evidence we classify them. This is what we are paid for, this is what prosecutors do, they investigate. So we have done our job, we have investigated an alleged corruption deed," the Chief prosecutor said.
She also rejected the accusation regarding the selection of cases being investigated by DNA. "We don't pick our cases, the law says whom we can tap or whom we cannot or whom we can investigate or not," the DNA Chief prosecutor specified. According to anti-corruption prosecutors, the case focuses on the illegal transfer of a part of the Belina Island and Pavel Branch to the management of the County Council (CJ) Teleorman, which subsequently rented them to a commercial company.
