March 4, 2021 UPDATE

A roundup of domestic and international news.

Newsroom, 04.03.2021, 20:00

JUSTICE — Romanian President Klaus Iohannis on Thursday asked Justice Minister Stelian Ion to offer public explanations for the Bucharest Tribunal’s final ruling not to reopen the inquiry into the anti-government demonstration from 10th August 2018, when the gendarmerie used force against demonstrators. “Romanians have every right to know who is guilty for the violence against peaceful demonstrators. Things cannot end here so I asked the justice and interior ministers to find solutions so that the truth about what happened on the 10th of August is found and the perpetrators are brought to justice,” the President said in a Facebook post on Thursday. Also on Thursday, the Justice Minister asked the Higher Council of Magistracy to take a stand in defending the independence of the judiciary as regards suspicions, in the public perception, that an investigation into the ‘August 10’ file had not been conducted. Judges with the Higher Council of Magistracy condemned, on Wednesday, the ‘improper’ language used in the public space following the ruling of the Bucharest Tribunal, which rejected the request of the prosecutors with the Directorate for the Investigation of Organised Crime and Terrorism to reopen the investigation of the former heads of the gendarmerie in relation to the ‘August 10’ case, which they see as an attack against the independence of judges. Civic groups and associations protested on Wednesday in front of the Bucharest Tribunal following the ruling and said they would address the European Court of Human Rights.

CORONAVIRUS – Covid cases are surging again in Romania. 4,271 new infections were reported on Thursday, the highest figure since the start of the year, as well as 98 new related deaths. 1,070 Covid patients are in intensive care. Total infections are nearing 817,000 and that of related fatalities 20,700. Several counties are now in the red tier zone, reporting more than 3 cases per 1,000 inhabitants over the course of 14 days. In Timiş county, in the west, three localities will go into lockdown for the next two weeks due to rising infection rates. Meanwhile, the mass vaccination campaign continues, with more than 1 million people having already had the jab in this country.

AIRPORT – The first six biometric gates in Romania became operational on Bucharest’s Henri Coanda International Airport on Thursday. Thus, transit is eased for travellers who own biometric documents such as ID cards or passports, because these documents are checked within seconds, unlike the classic method that can take minutes. Also, the new kit uses facial recognition at check-in, bag drops, security lanes and boarding gates for passengers walking through the airport, meaning less physical contact and face to face engagement between staff and passengers. The investment in these systems was financed with European funds and will also include other big airports in Romania.

RESTRICTIONS – New restrictions to tackle the coronavirus pandemic came into effect in Greece, to stay in place until 16th March. A night-time curfew from 9 pm to 5 am during week days and from 7 pm to 5 am at the weekend has been imposed in the metropolitan areas around Athens and Thessaloniki. Some sports activities and wedding, baptism and funeral receptions were also banned and church services can be held with no people present. Schools will be closed in areas where the epidemiological situation is more serious. The French government is also expected to announce new local restrictions, including weekend lockdowns, a measure already used in Nice and Dunkirk.

POLICE – Romanian interior minister Lucian Bode on Wednesday evening announced the replacement of the leadership of the County Police Inspectorate in Bacău (east) and of the local police in Oneşti in the wake of a double homicide committed a few days earlier in this town. The incident, which shocked the entire country, still raises many questions. Minister Bode also asked the prosecutors office to start an investigation into possible workplace negligence over attempts to minimise the importance of the incident, failing to take into account all available data and failing to brief superiors in a complete and accurate manner. On Monday, two builders working in a private flat in Oneşti were killed by the flats former owner. Aged 68, the latter was unhappy that he had been evicted from his home. The police opened fire to enter the apartment where the former owner was holding the builders hostage, after negotiations with the police failed. The attacker was shot in the legs by the police and taken to hospital. In another incident, eight police officers from a police station in Bucharest were detained by prosecutors and accused of torturing two young men. In September last year, the two young men filed a complaint saying they were beaten up by the police officers after pointing out they were not wearing facemasks and were fining people indiscriminately.

QUAKE – Romania marked on Thursday the 44th anniversary of the earthquake of 4th March 1977 measuring 7.2 degrees on the Richter scale. The biggest to hit Romania, the tremor killed 1,570 people, mostly in Bucharest, and caused damage estimated at over 2 billion dollars at the time. Some 230,000 homes were destroyed or seriously damaged. The earthquake led to an economic and social crisis which historians say the communist dictatorship of the day was unable to recover from, before its demise in 1989. Experts are warning that in the event of a new earthquake of this magnitude, hundreds of buildings are at risk of collapsing in Bucharest. According to an opinion poll conducted by the Romanian Institute for Evaluation and Strategy (IRES), less than 20% of all homes in Romania were insured in 2020 against a series of risks. 54% of respondents said they are worried about a new earthquake and some two thirds said they dont know what they should do in the event of a disaster. More than 100 tremors measuring over 3 degrees on the Richter scale are taking place every year in Romania.

TENNIS – The Romanian-Latvian pair Monica Niculescu and Jelena Ostapenko reached the doubles final in a WTA tennis tournament in Doha, after defeating on Thursday the Czech pair Barbora Krejcikova/Katerina Siniakova in three sets, 2-6, 6-3, 10-8. In the final Niculescu and Ostapenko will play against Nicole Melichar of the US and Demi Schuurs of the Netherlands. (EE)