The Udrea affair, once again in the spotlight

Udrea was sentenced for corruption and once again tried to dodge the law by leaving the country

Ştefan Stoica, 08.04.2022, 13:50

The
trial of the famous Bute Gala case, named after the former great
Romanian-Canadian fighter, has reached its end. The High Court of Cassation and
Justice Thursday dismissed as unfounded the appeals for annulment filed by the
former minister for development Elena Udrea, and the other defendants.

Elena
Udrea was sentenced to 6 years behind bars, the ex-president of the Romanian
Boxing Federation Rudel Obreja will have to serve 5 years, and the
administrator of Udrea’s land, 3 years.

The
sentences in this case were suspended in December 2018, when the Constitutional
Court ruled that the law had not been observed when the 5-judge panels were
formed, and therefore the final ruling in the Bute Gala trial had been passed
by an illegal panel.

In
dismissing the appeal for annulment, Romania’s supreme court enforced a
decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union, under which national
judges may reverse a Constitutional Court ruling in cases involving frauds in EU
spending.

The
Romanian judges thus confirmed the precedence of EU law over the national law,
by overturning a Constitutional Court ruling.

In
the Bute Gala trial, Udrea was accused of having coordinated a system through
which people close to her would receive money from businesses in exchange for timely
payments for the services provided to the ministry headed by Udrea.

According
to investigators, the money reached Elena Udrea directly, in cash or as
payments for goods or services, or was given to individuals she designated to
this end. Udrea was also accused of prompting other ministry personnel to
overstep their powers while procuring advertising services for the Bute Gala
event, which caused losses to the ministry’s budget and brought undue benefits
to Rudel Obreja.

In
2018, Elena Udrea received a 6-year prison sentence for bribe-taking and abuse
of office, but she fled Romania, to be found and incarcerated later on in Costa
Rica. She tried to do the same this Thursday, when the final ruling was passed,
but she was caught in Bulgaria. The National Anti-Corruption Directorate had
requested that she be placed under court supervision precisely because of her
previous attempt to dodge the law, however the court dismissed the request.

The
end of the Bute Gala trial is by no means the end of Elena Udrea’s judicial
problems. She has also been sentenced by a court of first instance to 8 years
in prison for the election campaign of 2009, and she is a defendant in a third
case as well. Ironically, Elena Udrea first rose to power as an advocate of the
fight against corruption and the chief aide to ex-president Traian Băsescu, himself
a champion of the fight for the independence of prosecutors until they started
looking into corruption offences committed by Băsescu’s own inner circle.

The
legacy of the Băsescu regime is rather grim: its number one has recently been
confirmed by Court as a former collaborator of the communist political police,
while its second in command is someone sentenced for corruption, who tried for
a second time to evade serving a sentence. (A.M.P.)