The Supreme Court rejected on Thursday an appeal submitted by the Dan Voiculescu, founding president of the Conservative Party, against a previous decision by which he was declared a collaborator of the Ceausescu-era political police, the Securitate. Todays' decision is final and cannot be appealed. Voiculescu reacted by saying the verdict was incorrect and that the case will be cleared at the European Court of Human Rights.
In 2006, CNSAS, the body analyzing the archives of the Securitate, ex-dictator Nicolae Ceausescu's dreaded political police, decided that Dan Voiculescu - currently a Senator, deputy speaker of the Senate, and an influential businessman whose family owns a major media group, Intact - had collaborated with the Securitate starting in early seventies. According to the CNSAS decision, he provided info about colleagues, relatives who left abroad and foreign citizens who he came in contact with.
Dan Voiculescu is the founder of the Conservative Party, a small but influential party which has been for years part of various governing or opposition coalitions, which helped its members enter the Parliament.
Dan Voiculescu challenged the CNSAS decision, but in February 2010 the Bucharest Appeals Court rejected his move. Voiculescu and his legal representative had claimed he in fact was turned in to the Securitate by 17 collaborators of the communist-era political police.
On his election as a Senator in 2004, he stated that he had not collaborated with the political police, but later admitted that he only provided limited information to the Securitate.
On Thursday, he said the Supreme Court decision was an incorrect verdict "which reflects the huge pressure put on magistrates. The case will continue at the ECHR".
The Conservative Party is now allied with the Liberals (PNL) and Social Democrats (PSD) in the Social Liberal Union (USL) opposition alliance.
PSD official Liviu Dragnea said the Thursday decision would in no way affect the Union and that they did not pay much interest in the issue as Romania had many more important problems these days.
The Liberals had long been saying they would never work with collaborators of the Securitate. But today PNL official Mihai Voicu said that the Social Liberal Union was an alliance between parties, not people. Still, other PNL officials including Ludovic Orban and Relu Fenechiu said that either Voiculescu had to withdraw from the alliance or have his situation discussed within the USL.
And former prime minister Adrian Nastase of the Social Democrats commented that the Thursday verdict is linked to the fact that Voiculescu controlled TV news channel Antena 3, which is "hostile to the current leadership" of the country.
