End of line for Public Enemy No. 1

Published on 27 March 2012 at 12:42

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Romania’s most publicised manhunt came to an end on 27 March in Kenya, when Michai Boldea handed himself over to authorities in the Romanian Consulate in Nairobi. The former MP and member of the ruling Democratic Liberal Party has since been transferred by plane to Bucharest, where he will now face charges before the High Court of Justice. Accused of being at the head of a criminal organisation involved in human trafficking and fraud, Boldea, age 36, left Romania on 17 March, and travelled to Bulgaria and Turkey before arriving in Kenya.

"Thank you Interpol for bringing back the fugitive from Kenya!"announces an exultant Adevărul, while rival daily România Liberăregrets the damage that the affair will do to Romania’s image: "It is as though we were living in a village at the end of the world", writes the newspaper, which remarks that “the country, which is covered in shame,” is hardly ready to join the Schengen Area.

The Netherlands, one of the main opponents of Romania’s entry into the free movement area, has demanded that Bucharest obtain two consecutive positive reports from the Mechanism for Cooperation and Verification for its efforts in the fight against corruption and organised crime by 2013: “We can already see the Dutch smiling… Bye bye Schengen!"

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Finally, Adevărul notes that "the evaporation" of the MP, who took advantage of parliamentary immunity, is proof that -

... the corrupt will always find ways to get around the law. We have a National Integrity Agency, but we are short on integrity. We have an Anti-Corruption Department, but we are overloaded with corruption. One thing is clear: the links between corruption, smuggling and the world of politics are still very tight.

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