Romanian former PM Adrian Nastase, completely acquitted in the 'Matusa Tamara' case

Adrian Nastase, Romanian politician and former Prime Minister, who is currently in jail for money embezzling and corruption, was completely acquitted in another file, in the case called “Matusa Tamara” (Aunt Tamara), according to a decision made on Monday by a panel of five judges of High Court of Cassation and Justice (ICCJ). Also Ioan Melinescu and Ristea Proboi were acquitted for complicity in corruption acts.

The High Court of Cassation and Justice decided to acquit Adrian Nastase, on December 15 last year, of bribing Ioan Melinescu, president of National Office for Preventing and Combating Money Laundering (ONPCSB) between the years 2001-2004, for embezzlement or destruction of documents, bribery and disclosure of information, and of Ristea Proboi, adviser of the former Prime Minister, for complicity and bribery. The DNA appealed the decision of the panel of five judges of the ICCJ. The court decided on acquittal because the DNA didn’t come up with enough evidence to prove the “insidious deal” between the ex PM, ex chief of ONPCSB and ex general secretary of the Government, having doubts about their meeting. “Even if accepted, the prosecution's version events, which alleged a meeting between Adrian Nastase, Ioan Melinescu and Ristea Priboi took place, through Genica Boerica, a businessman from Craiova, the statement of the prosecutor that at the meeting they made the “insidious deal” doesn’t have any evidential support,” the judges noted. The judges showed that from all the evidences only the declarations of one of the witnesses can be taken into account, the denunciation and the evidences being declared suspicious. They also clarified the situation of the file ONPCSB, in which the wife of the ex PM, Daniela Nastase, was verified because of the amount of USD 400,000 and the financial situation of the witness Alexandru Bittner, a close friend of the Nastase family, who bought with a buy-sell contract the works of art from Tamara Cernasov. The prosecutors showed that in November 2000, Ioan Melinescu, president of ONPCSB between 2001-2004, with the help of Genica Boerica, contacted Ristea Priboi and Adrian Nastase to communicate that the institution in which he was working, deposited USD 400,000 in a bank account belonging to Daniela Nastase, wife of Adrian Nastase. Then Melinescu would have promised Nastase that he would block the work until the elections in December 2000, suggesting that this file had to disappear. Nastase agreed to the proposal, said the prosecutors. Nastase is currently doing time at Jilava. Before being taken to jail earlier this summer, Nastase shot himself in the neck, but was reportedly prevented from killing himself by one of the policemen who were in his house. Ioana Toader, ioana.toader@romania-insider.com