The "Aunt" Case - Nastase at NAD

The former Prime Minister of the country and runner-up in the race for the Romanian Presidency, Adrian Nastase has been at NAD (the National Anti-corruption Department) for the "Aunt" case yesterday at dawn.

For the first time since the NAD started investigating the "Aunt" case, seen as an appendix to the "Zambaccian" file, yesterday, Adrian Nastase "visited" the institution where the anti-corruption prosecutors fight to catch the great "sharks". The President of the Deputies’ Chamber, politician Adrian Nastase, went to NAD trying to get out of the flashlights and he even surprised the investigators by showing up at 8:30 a.m. sharp. He "broke" the gates of NAD and had a half-an-hour "simple discussion" with the prosecutor who takes care of the case.

ROAD TO NAD

Initially, Adrian Nastase should have come to NAD on Monday, as the chief of this institution Daniel Morar told us. However, the politician only sent his lawyer. "He couldn’t come on Monday, but he came first thing today (n.e. - yesterday). He will be called in more than once in the future for clearing up the "Zambaccian" file", the chief-prosecutor Morar, told us and he wasn’t able to give us any more details. Judicial sources told us that there should be more meetings between the investigators and the inquired.

We remind that, in this file, the prosecutors started checking the legal aspect of the purchase of the terrain on the Zambaccian Street by Adrian Nastase, which appeared in August 2004 when the NLP - DP (National Liberal Party - Democratic Party) Alliance, under the signature of Mona Musca, approach the former NADA (National Anti-corruption District Attorney). The 700 square meter terrain belonged to former SDPR (Social Democratic Party in Romania) Parliament Member Gabriel Bivolaru and got into the possession of Adrian Nastase in 1998 by successive selling at "prices 25 times smaller than the real market price of the terrain", says the penal complaint. The checking resulted in the closing of the file. On the 4th of November 2005, Daniel Morar, the new leader of the new anti-corruption fight, re-opened the case.

EXTENDED INVESTIGATIONS

However, until now, the NAD prosecutors did not begin any legal investigation against anyone in this case, but after the "Aunt" scandal, they extended the investigations regarding the source of the money with which the Prime Minister bought the terrain and a part of the house in the center of Bucharest. Last week, Adrian Nastase said to the Supreme Court of Justice he wants to be investigated and asked them to check on his "Aunt", but the politician got in the hands of NAD.

Translation by Sorin Balan