March 26, 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:

Prosecutors from the Criminal Investigation and Criminalistics Section within the Prosecutor’s Office attached to the High Court of Cassation and Justice finished the investigations in the case known in the media as “referendum frauds” in the Constanţa County and launched, on March 25, 2013, the criminal prosecution against the defendants IORDAN ELENA, TACHE ADELINA GABRIELA, NEGOIŢĂ FELICIA, TACHE CONSTANTIN, VĂRVĂROIU VASILICĂ, FLOREA DIANA, SIMION LENUŢA-LĂCRĂMIOARA, MIUŢU MARIOARA, GHIBĂLDAN DANIELA, GRĂDIŞTEANU ANDREI ALEXANDRU and STĂNIMIR VIOLETA for the offence provided by Article 55 (1) of the Law No. 3 of 2000, namely for having introduced into the ballot box more voting bulletins than the actual number of votes casted by the electors, or for having forged by various means documents of the election board.

The indictment shows the following:

I. At the National Referendum of July 29, 2012, the defendants Iordan Elena, Tache Adelina Gabriela, Negoiţă Felicia, Tache Constantin and Vărvăroiu Vasilică, in their capacities of president and members, respectively, of the election board of the Polling Station No. 489 of Lumina, the Constanţa County, concertedly forged at least 222 signatures of persons registered on the Section’s permanent election lists and fraudulently introduced the same number of voting bulletins into the ballot box, preparing fake minutes on the results of the referendum.

II. The defendant Florea Diana, in the capacity of president of the election board of the Polling Station No. 490 of Lumina, the Constanţa County, enabled the wangling of the results of the election process by forging the signatures of 45 voters on the permanent lists.

III. During the election process  of July 29, 2012, the defendants Simion Lenuţa-Lăcrămioara, Miuţu Marioara, Ghibăldan Daniela, Grădişteanu Andrei Alexandru and Stănimir Violeta, in their capacities of president and members, respectively, of the election board of the Polling Station No. 488 of Lumina, the Constanţa County, forged at least 180 signatures of persons registered on the permanent election lists and fraudulently introduced at least 135 voting bulletins into the ballot box, approximately corresponding to the number of forged signatures, subsequently signing the minutes on the results of the referendum containing false data.

To sum up, the indictment prepared by the prosecutors shows that, of a total of 2,842 electors, 402 votes were casted illegally.

The case falls under the jurisdiction of the Constanţa Local Court.

We would like to point out that, according to the criminal procedure Code, this phase of the criminal proceedings represents the end of the criminal inquiry and the launching of the criminal prosecution, which does not override the presumption of innocence principle.