The prosecutors asked Romanian Senate president and former Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu to take a polygraph test as they questioned him as a witness in a corruption case on Thursday, September 15. Tariceanu says he willingly accepted the lie detector test and claims that the National Anticorruption Department (DNA) wants to compromise his image before the elections.

Tariceanu is a witness in the corruption case in which former central bank deputy governor Bogdan Olteanu is being accused of receiving a EUR 1 million bribe from local businessman Sorin Ovidiu Vintu, in 2008, when he was president of the Chamber of Deputies. In return, Olteanu allegedly used his influence to support the appointment of former journalist Liviu Mihaiu as governor of the Danube Delta.

The DNA prosecutors are trying to find out if Bogdan Olteanu discussed with Tariceanu about this appointment. Calin Popescu Tariceanu was Prime Minister and head of the National Liberal Party at that time, while Olteanu was a PNL member.

DNA prosecutors detained Bogdan Olteanu at the end of July this year. He was the deputy governor of the central bank at that time, but resigned soon after the investigation started. He is now being investigated under house arrest.

Tariceanu apparently told the prosecutors that he didn’t remember any discussion within the party about Mihaiu’s appointment, according to judicial sources quoted by local Digi24. Thus, the case prosecutor proposed him to take a polygraph test.

Calin Popescu Tariceanu says he willingly accepted to take a polygraph test, according to a press release he issued on Thursday afternoon. He also suggests that the leaked information according to which he didn't answer some of the prosecutors questions are only meant to tarnish his image before the parliamentary elections. Tariceanu is one of DNA's main opponents and has been among the most vocal politicians in claiming that the anticorruption institution was politically influenced.

The Senate president was sent to court earlier this year for lying under oath in another case investigated by DNA related to illegal property restitution.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com