Romanian prosecutors request lifting of immunity for pro-Russian MEP Diana Șoșoacă

The Prosecutor’s Office attached to Romania’s High Court requested that the European Parliament lift the immunity of MEP Diana Șoșoacă on Tuesday, September 23. The request relates to cases of unlawful deprivation of liberty, Holocaust denial, public promotion of the cult of persons convicted for genocide and war crimes, as well as fascist, legionary, racist, or xenophobic doctrines.

This is not the first scandal involving Diana Șoșoacă. In July of last year, she was thrown out of the session of the European Parliament during the debate on Ursula von der Leyen's election for a new term as president of the European Commission. The Romanian MEP continued to shout in the hallways, saying that von der Leyen "killed people" through the COVID-era vaccine mandates. She also chose to wear a dog muzzle.

She also famously became involved in many such altercations in the Romanian Parliament in defense of her far-right ideas.

The case now brought against Diana Șoșoacă, according to the official press release, is related to an incident from four years ago, when she and her husband allegedly held captive and assaulted a team of Italian journalists.

In a separate episode, after the judges of the Constitutional Court invalidated her candidacy for the presidential elections last year, Șoșoacă paid tribute in a live broadcast on Facebook to Corneliu Zelea-Codreanu, the leader of the Legionary movement in Romania.

Finally, in February of this year, the Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes filed a complaint with the General Prosecutor’s Office, also targeting the MEP, for promoting the cult of dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu in a speech in the European Parliament. In other statements, Șoșoacă said that Marshal Ion Antonescu and Zelea Codreanu were heroes.

Following these instances, prosecutors are now looking to continue the criminal investigation of the MEP known for her pro-Russian and conspiratorial speeches. Specifically, they are investigating four offenses of unlawful deprivation of liberty, four offenses of publicly promoting the cult of persons convicted for committing genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes, as well as the act of publicly promoting fascist, legionary, racist, or xenophobic ideas.

(Photo source: Inquam Photos | George Calin)