Romanians plan protests, high officials react to Senate’s decision to protect ex-minister from prosecution

Romania's Senate decided on Monday to protect former interior minister Gabriel Oprea from prosecution, and this has triggered many reactions in Romania. As the former minister is still a senator, the National Anticorruption Department (DNA) had requested the Senate to allow Oprea’s prosecution in the case in which he was charged with manslaughter after a young policeman died while opening the way for the minister’s motorcade. The Senate, however, decided to reject DNA’s request. Thus, thousands of Romanians have rallied on Facebook, unhappy with the MPs’ decision. They are planning a massive protest in front of the Romanian Senate’s headquarters on Thursday, September 22, 18:00. So far, almost 7,000 people showed that they were interested in the Facebook event called Protest “Oprea you are being investigated, you must stand trial!”. Moreover, some 2,600 also appear as going to the protest. “Police officer Bogdan Gigina died on duty, opening the way on his motorcycle for the motorcade organized for the interior minister, his boss. A police officer died, but the person identified by prosecutors as guilty of manslaughter will not answer to justice because those in the Romanian Senate think that they are above the law,” reads the event’s description. Similar protests will also to be organized in Unirii Square in Cluj-Napoca, and Mihai Viteazul Square in Craiova. Not only the Romanians reacted to the Senate’s decision to keep Oprea safe from prosecution, but also high officials such as the UK and the US Ambassadors. “I can’t comment on individual cases. […] I know it's an important principle generally pursued in the UK, Romania, and all democracies, that democracy must be equal for all,” said Paul Brummell, the UK Ambassador to Bucharest, reports local Mediafax. The US Ambassador to Bucharest, Hans Klemm, also stated that, although he’s not commenting individual cases, he believes that “the essential principle of democracy is that all people are equal before the law.” “As my Embassy has said many times and we issued a statement again today, we strongly believe that no one should be above the law, that the guilt and innocence are something that should be determined in court and not in the Parliament,” the Ambassador said during a conference on corruption. Raluca Pruna, the Romanian Ministry of Justice also said that Romania’s problem is that the law is being applied in a discriminatory way. “I don’t want to refer to a particular case, but I’ve said that Romania’s problem is not that we don’t have legislation, Romania's problem is that we apply the law in a discriminatory way. We make a sort of positive discrimination,” the minister said, reports local Mediafax. DNA also reacted after the senators’ vote, saying that their decision to reject the prosecutors’ request blocks the criminal investigation against Gabriel Oprea for manslaughter, and justice can no longer be served. The prosecutors said last year, soon after the young policeman’s death, that