03.04.2013

PRESS RELEASE

The Public Information and Press Relations Bureau within the Prosecutor’s Office attached to the High Court of Cassation and Justice is authorized to bring to public knowledge the following:

The prosecutors of the Section for criminal pursuit and criminalistics within the Prosecutor’s Office attached to the High Court of Cassation and Justice have finished the investigations in the case known by the media as “Fraud  at the referendum” Mehedinti and  ordered, on 03.03.2013, the  initiating od the criminal action and the sending before court of the defendants CALEA RODICA, ANTONIE TITUS and AMZOI ION, for committing the offence provided  by art. 55 par. 1 of the Law no. 3/2000, respectively introducing in the voting box  of a supplementary number of voting papers than those voted by the electors or forging, by any means, of the documents  at the election offices.

 In the bill of indictment, the  prosecutors held the following  factual situation:

 On the occasion of carrying out of the  national referendum organized  on 29 July 2012, the defendant CALEA RODICA, in her quality as  president of the   voting section of the  Patulele community, has signed the supplementary election list belonging to the  mobile voting box, knowing that  this contains false signatures, has introduced in the voting box  a supplementary number of voting papers, according to the persons enrolled in false (both the permanent election list and the supplementary election list) and has  recorded the  unreal data regarding the number of the participant in the  protocol concerning the result of the referendum.

 At the same time, the defendants ANTONIE TITUTS and AMZOI ION, as members of the  election office of the same voting section in the community of Patulele, who have been designated  by the presidency of the section  to  go with the  mobile voting box to all  the persons  enrolled on the  supplementary list, have not carried out their  attribution.  In this context, the defendants allowed , subsequently, the false signing  of those who have not exercised  their voting right and the introducing  of a supplementary number of voting papers , corresponding to these persons, as well as the signing of the  protocol regarding the result of the referendum, knowing that  this one contains  unreal data.

 Synthetizing, from the bill of indictment issued by the prosecutors, it results that 137  votes of a total of 1440 electors enrolled on the permanent and on the  supplementary list were forged.

 The file was sent, for competent solution, to the  Trial court Vinju Mare.

 We mention, that this phase of the criminal process represents, according to the  Criminal Procedure Code, the finalizing of the  criminal investigation and the sending  of the bill of indictment to the court, for judging, situation, which can, by no means, infringe the principle of the presumption of innocence.