What the newspapers say: March 3, 2009

Former PM Nastase accuses his party colleagues of not helping him keep the parliamentarian immunity and warns them that him being sent to court is just a sign of what will happen to others as well. Elsewhere in the news, the case of the two Romanians accused of raping a 14-year old girl in Italy doesn’t seem to have any valid evidence. Back in Romania, the State is about to impose new taxes, while Romania’s richest businessmen are buried in debt.

„No one defended me. No one stood up to say that these case files are political”, said Adrian Nastase during the Social Democrats’ Permanent Bureau session on Monday. The former Prime Minister, accused of corruption in two cases, says that losing his parliamentarian immunity and being sent to Court is a signal that this may happen as well to other politicians. „It’s just the beginning. Others will follow”, he said, according to Evenimentul Zilei.

In Italy, the DNA evidence collected in the case of the rape of a 14-year old girl don’t belong to the two Romanian suspects arrested by the Police. Even more, their phones were detected in other areas of Rome at the time the crime took place. One of the suspects kept claiming he was innocent ever since he was arrested, while the other now says that he signed a confession because he was forced by the Italian and the Romanian Police. He also accuses Police brutality and psychological pressure, Gandul reads. Despite of the evidence pointing at the fact that they were not in the area of the crime, at the moment it took place, and of the fact that there is not a DNA match between their samples and the ones collected by forensic experts, the judge handling the case decided the should remain into the Police custody.

„Romania’s richest, chased by debt recovery agents”, is the main headline in Cotidianul. The Finance Ministry published the list of the most important debtors towards the state, including the names of some of the most important Romanian businessmen. Some say their debt does not exist in fact, since the State owes them VAT return well above the debt mentioned in the Finance Ministry report. Others say the debt is subject to a lawsuit and should not be recorded as such, at least not until a final Court decision. Very few, though, say there are some delays in the payments, but that they will pay their debt as soon as possible, Cotidianul reads.

The state prepares to introduce a lump tax for small and medium enterprises, which will be applied regardless of the financial results of the companies – be they on profit or loss. Private business environment officials have different opinions about the new tax, but they all agree upon one aspect: the moment for introducing it is very poorly chosen, same Cotidianul reads.