Romania’s foreign minister, Oana Țoiu, is facing a criminal complaint filed with the National Anticorruption Directorate, or DNA, after a scandal involving the repatriation of Irina Ponta, the 17-year-old daughter of former prime minister Victor Ponta, amid the conflict in the Middle East.

The scandal broke out on March 5 after the former Social Democrat (PSD) prime minister and his ex-wife Daciana Sârbu accused Țoiu, backed by the reformist center-right party Save Romania Union (USR), of having intervened so that his daughter would not be on a plane back to Romania from Dubai. 

Thousands of Romanian citizens asked for consular assistance in leaving the Middle East after the United States and Israel bombed Iran. Flights were grounded, however, and repatriations were slow, as numerous countries made efforts to bring their citizens home. Plane ticket prices soared, especially as Iran began conducting drone strikes against its neighbors that hosted US military bases, including Dubai.

In this context, Daciana Sârbu and Victor Ponta announced that their daughter was removed from the passenger list of the plane that was supposed to bring numerous schoolchildren on a trip to Dubai back home. The girl, who was in the UAE for a college admittance interview, was taken off the bus taking the other children to the airport and told that she is a “vulnerability” due to her name, according to her mother. The girl later boarded a commercial flight that brought her safely back to Romania.

Irina Ponta’s case was televised by numerous channels friendly to the Social Democratic Party, despite the fact that her father is no longer a member. Figures within the party, currently in the governing coalition with USR, also used her situation to urge the removal of the center-right party from government.

In reply, minister Oana Ţoiu specified that she did not check the names of the persons who requested repatriation, and that in the documents she saw, there was no mention of unaccompanied minors, as was the case for Irina Ponta.

However, the official admitted that consular staff did discuss the case of Victor Ponta’s daughter.

“There was a parallel communication compared to the official channels. There was consular personnel who carried out a conversation separate from the formal records, which led to the arrival of a minor in the consular space outside the appointments reported to the central office. Obviously, things can be greatly improved here,” Țoiu said, cited by Digi24.

She maintained, nevertheless, that there was no intervention from her part.

“No foreign minister has access to the database with names and surnames. I have never asked about any individual case. I was asked by the consular team after the entire group was finalized, as it was reported, in categories, to the central office,” she said.

The case led to the filing of a criminal complaint by lawyer Adrian Cuculis, who argued that the Romanian state should have triggered all European, national, and local mechanisms to urgently repatriate its Romanian citizens after Iran attacked Dubai and Abu Dhabi. 

The lawyer further argued, according to Agerpres, that Ponta’s daughter was practically refused boarding on a repatriation plane, although she was present at the Romanian consulate in Dubai and, according to the law, she should have come under the protection of the Romanian state.

The lawyer also claimed that Oana Țoiu allegedly expressly asked consul Viorel Riceard Badea not to board Irina Ponta, who was not on the e-consulate lists, although she fell within the notion of a vulnerable person.

radu@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Inquam Photos | Octav Ganea and George Calin)