Romania’s security chief Lucian Pahonțu again under fire over plagiarism allegations
Lucian Pahonțu, the longtime director of the Protection and Guard Service (SPP) and alleged backroom power broker, was accused of plagiarizing at least 30% of his 2003 doctoral thesis by independent journalists part of Recorder on Wednesday, September 2.
The doctoral thesis signed by Lucian Pahonțu is entitled “Tactics Used for the Guarding and Protection of Particularly Important Objectives” and was supervised by retired general Prof. Univ. Dr. Valentin Arsenie. It was defended in April 2003 at the Academy of Higher Military Studies, now the “Carol I” National Defence University (UNAP).
The doctoral thesis has a total of 205 pages. Except for the technical pages and appendices, the content of the thesis amounts to 175 pages. Pahonțu allegedly took material from other sources without citation or with citations that do not comply with academic standards, according to the journalists.
Immediately after defending his thesis, Pahonțu was promoted to the rank of general in the Romanian Gendarmerie, and two years later he was appointed by president Traian Băsescu as Director of the Protection and Guard Service.
Pahonțu is also the author of a book entitled “Terrorism and Destabilization,” published in 2003 by Bioterra publishing house. The book contains part of his doctoral thesis, as well as a series of comments on events in the 1990s. In it, the head of the SPP laments the dissolution of the Militia and the Securitate and mocks the victims of the 1991 Mineriad, according to the same source.
The plagiarism accusation comes only a week after Recorder accused Pahonțu of taking part in the repression of the December 1989 Revolution and the June 1990 Mineriad as an officer commanding a unit within the Securitate Troops.
The head of the SPP rejected the accusations and cited official documents showing that he did not take part in the repression.
Snoop, another independent publication, also published an article on the SPP chief on Tuesday, September 1. In it, the journalists showed that Pahonțu earns roughly EUR 9,000 a month from the Romanian state by combining his salary with a special pension of EUR 7,000, in RON equivalent. By comparison, Nicusor Dan, the highest dignitary in the Romanian state and the one Pahonțu is tasked with guarding, among others, earns only RON 16,000 (EUR 3,000) a month.
(Photo source: Inquam Photos/Octav Ganea)
