Romanian Economy minister Codrut Seres has become the subject of a series of revelations for the past several days, related to an alleged “privileged relationship” - as one newspaper put it - with a Bulgarian citizen investigated over his role in the privatization of Romanian energy companies.

Seres responded with an open letter to be sent to a series of officials today claiming the judicial system is used in political purposes.

He says in the open letter that “for several days I’ve been the target of attacks based on the fact that my name appears in a document that seems to be part of a just-opened investigation”. He said the revelations in several influential newspapers were aimed at tainting his image.

The first revelations related to an allegedly suspicious connection between the minister and Bulgarian citizen Stamen Stancev were made in Jurnalul National, a newspaper owned by the family of the Conservative Party-PC, to which Seres belongs.

It said on Friday that the minister might be a subject of a prosecutor’s investigation because had several meetings with Stancev, who represented a major Western financial group in the privatization of Romanian energy companies and who’s been suspected of organized crime activities. Seres was said to have delivered classified information to the Bulgarian.

Other newspapers continued the story with supplementary revelations on Sunday. But according to the minister, this is all proof that the Justice system is used in political purposes.

Seres recently claimed there’ve been intense pressures related to the privatization of energy companies in Romania. The issue was discussed at the National Defense Council last week as authorities in Bucharest have called for a declassification of the contracts by which several companies including oil major Petrom were privatized over the past several years.