President Basescu repeats, details allegation of PM Ponta being ex-officer of foreign intel

Incumbent Prime Minister and presidential candidate Victor Ponta used to be an undercover officer of the Foreign Intelligence Service (SIE) from 1997 until 2001, President Traian Basescu asserted again on Sunday.

'I did not speak as propaganda. Victor Ponta was an undercover officer of the Foreign Intelligence Service in 1997-2001, when he served the Service as a prosecutor, probably protecting people whom SIE was interested in protecting at the General Prosecutor's Office, and he did so in an unconstitutional, illegal way. Under the Constitution in force back then, Article 130, a prosecutor could not be also an officer of the Foreign Intelligence Service,' Basescu said upon leaving a restaurant where he had met Elena Udrea, the presidential candidate he openly supports.

Asked whether he is going to produce evidence of his allegations, first made in a TV broadcast on October 13, Basescu said no. 'CCR [the Constitutional Court of Romania] is not the one able to judge such issues. The Constitutional Court judges constitutional conflicts between institutions. What could be done, is Victor Ponta changing the Government Decision he passed in 2013, with the connivance with [former SIE Director Teodor] Melescanu, and by which he abusively and illegally included reserve officers in the category of those who could not be exposed, next to the active officers,' Basescu added.

'Ponta can change the abusive Government Decision he issued,' the president concluded a brief talk with journalists, where he also pointed out: 'I can meet whoever I want.' AGERPRES