A weighty procedure protects Romanian high officials from legal action, but in this case the upper chamber of Parliament approved the opening of the investigation and the president subsequently signed a decree suspending the minister from his function.
The move came almost exactly a year after the chief prosecutor of the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) requested the head of state for permission to investigate Pacuraru, then minister of family and equality, over a bribe-taking charge.
Pacuraru was allegedly recorded asking a local political leader of the ruling National Liberal Party (PNL) to arrange for businesses to grant contracts to his son's company. The leader of the PNL is Romanian Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu.
In the meantime, the Romanian Constitutional Court made prosecuting ministers and former ministers more difficult, with Parliament having to rule on each individual request for stripping the accused of judicial immunity. In a high-profile case involving a former prime minister and a former minister of transport, the Parliament overwhelmingly rejected the bid, triggering criticism from Brussels (EurActiv 19/08/08).
But the case of Pacuraru was different. On 26 August, the Senate stripped him of his immunity and he appeared in front of the DNA to be informed of the charges against him. After a criminal investigation has begun, the Constitution grants the president the right to suspend the ministers concerned.
