Reactions to the Caracal case

Investigations into the killings in Caracal continue.

Roxana Vasile, 31.07.2019, 13:55

The Directorate for the Investigation of
Organised Crime and Terrorism and the police continue investigations in Caracal
into the case that shook this small town in southern Romania. Gheorghe Dica, a
car mechanic in his 60s, admitted to killing two girls of 15 and 18, Alexandra
and Luiza, after abducting them from the street, locking them up and raping
them.

In the absence of regular
updates from the authorities, the few known facts about the case are being
intensely debated in the public realm, with the public acting a collective
detective trying to make sense of this increasingly complicated case. Social
networks are full of the most macabre of scenarios. At the same time, public
opinion is increasingly outraged at the way in which the authorities have
acted, while evidence of the latter’s unprofessional behaviour keeps surfacing.
The uncle of one of the victims, who is a public figure, has published on
Facebook the reports of the desperate calls made by his niece to the emergency
hotline.

Alexandra, who was abducted
last Wednesday, the next day managed to call the emergency line, which is
administered by the Special Telecommunications Service (STS). The Service not
only was not able to track the girl’s location, but the person who took her
call and then the police officer her call was transferred to both failed to
handle the situation with professionalism. After entering three wrong addresses
indicated by the Special Telecommunications Service, it took the police another
19 hours to enter the house of the suspect. The police blamed the delay on the
prosecutor in charge of the case at the time, who, invoking the law, did not
allow them to enter the suspect’s house before 6 am on Friday.

This unacceptable series of
mistakes has already led to dismissals and resignations. The interior minister
Nicolae Moga has also resigned to salvage some of the image of the home office
whose reputation has suffered owing to the deficient activity of some of its
employees. The director of the Special Telecommunications Service Ionel Vasilca
has resigned, the head of the Romanian Police Ioan Buda has been sacked, as
have been a number of local police chiefs and the prefect of Olt county. In
parallel, a report presented on Tuesday in a meeting of the County’s Supreme
Defence Council concluded that the institutions responsible for citizens’
safety have failed, through a long list of unacceptable errors, to ensure a
fundamental right provided for in the Romanian Constitution, namely the right
to life.

The Romanian president Klaus
Iohannis has requested the government to propose, by the end of August,
measures, norms and procedures of rapid reaction and coordination to prevent
delays such as those that occurred in the Caracal case. For her part, prime
minister Viorica Dancila has mentioned possible legislative measures to
eliminate the dysfunctions of the structures in charge of citizens’ safety.
Mihai Fifor, who has been appointed interim interior minister, has received a
mandate from the prime minister to initiate a radical process of fighting crime
and reforming the system.