After a Romanian court felt sorry for a pitiful, confused old man and gave him a brief respite for Christmas, now twice-convicted former Prime Minister Adrian Nastase was carted off to jail two nights ago. Officially sentenced to four years, it’s doubtful he’ll serve more than 12 months due to the way the spineless justice system in Romania works. Nonetheless, all of the local press (including lazy B1TV) got their shot of him being driven away in a crappy old white car as he headed off to the police station to be booked.
Currently he’s in a 21-day “quarantine” at the Rahova prison but, just like last time he was incarcerated for serious crimes, he has access to the internet and indeed has already written his first blog post from behind bars. I am sad to note however that he didn’t take the opportunity to bitch about the food (potatoes and cabbage, staple food for millions of ordinary Romanians) but I’m sure in the near future we’ll have the chance to be regaled by his lofty thoughts on this and other erudite topics.
But what caused me to shit my pants laughing yesterday was when current Prime Minister Victor Ponta (whom, it must be remembered, is Nastase’s golden boy) went on television and said that Nastase’s conviction is identical to that of Yulia Timoshenko, the former Prime Minister of “neighboring” Ukraine.
Since someone, somewhere might actually listen to Ponta and believe him, I’ve prepared a handy chart to compare and contrast the convictions of these two former prime ministers.
Note: ECHR is the European Court of Human Rights or CEDO using the Romanian acronym
| Yulia Timoshenko | Adrian Nastase | |
| Arrested while in office | Yes | No |
| Length of judicial process | less than 1 year | more than 7 years |
| Conviction criticized by domestic courts | Yes | No |
| Conviction appealed to the ECHR | Yes, accepted | Yes, rejected |
| Conviction condemned by ECHR in an official judicial finding | Yes | No |
| Accused held in jail before first conviction | Yes | No |
| Allowed internet access in jail | No | Yes |
| Allowed gifts of chocolates and snacks in jail | No | Yes |
| Given adequate medical treatment in jail | No | Yes |
| Conviction criticized by British government | Yes | No |
| Conviction criticized by German government | Yes | No |
| Conviction criticized by Swedish government | Yes | No |
| Conviction criticized by Russian government | Yes | No |
| Conviction criticized by Polish government | Yes | No |
| Conviction criticized by Canadian government | Yes | No |
| Conviction criticized by American government | Yes | No |
| Conviction criticized by the European Commission | Yes | No |
| Conviction criticized by other groups and organizations worldwide | Multiple | None |
| Public rallies in support of convicted ex-PM | Yes | No |
| People protesting in capital over conviction today (Jan 8, 2014) | Yes | No |
| Participation in EU conditional on release of convicted ex-PM | Unequivocally yes | No |
| Convicted ex-PM has eloquent and intelligent child who speaks to throngs of supporters at public rallies | Yes | No |
| Convicted ex-PM’s spouse also a convicted criminal | No | Yes |
| Family once owned a (chicken) egg producing farm | Yes | Yes |
I don’t know what I was thinking as clearly these two cases are identical!
Meanwhile yesterday afternoon I saw this hilarious update from B1TV:
Considering how many poor people are struggling to stay warm even during this relatively mild winter, frankly I’m glad the old fucker is getting a little taste of reality. It’s just a shame his much smarter and craftier thief of a wife isn’t going to be joining him.
All Things Romania 
Again, thank you for this interesting update and comparative crime study. You are doing a fabulous job at keeping us (well, me really) informed about the Romanian political scene and I can only thank you for it. Good job, keep it up, it’s not wasted on everybody at least :). Cheers Sam!
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“Officially sentenced to four years, it’s doubtful he’ll serve more than 12 months due to the way the spineless justice system in Romania works.”
Wrong. It has nothing to do with “the spineless justice system in Romania”. You can find the reasons in the Romanian criminal code.
As for the handy chart comparing the two ex-PMs’ cases, I think you should have credited Vlad Mixich for it. That would have been a sign of fair-play, don’t you think?
Check this: http://www.hotnews.ro/stiri-esential-16359856-marile-diferente-dintre-cazurile-adrian-nastase-iulia-timosenko.htm
And now you know. Vai ce bine!
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