Has Alexander Adamescu fallen victim to the #Romania ‘Deep State’?

 “Each one of you can be reached by the long arm of the parallel state,” declared Liviu Dragnea, leader of Romania’s ruling party, to a crowd of 150,000 protestors gathered in Bucharest this weekend - taking aim at the “abuses” of Romania’s judiciary and its links to the country’s intelligence services. Those of us that have been following the case of Alexander Adamescu weren’t surprised. His battle against a politically motivated European Arrest Warrant (EAW) issued by Laura Kovesi, Romania’s Chief Prosecutor recently ordered to resign by their Constitutional Court, has become the most high-profile case of its kind in the UK, writes Emily Barley, chairwoman of Conservatives for Liberty.

More shocking was his remanding in custody after almost two years on bail. As someone who knows Mr Adamescu through his political campaigning my first question was: how on earth did this happen? According to sources close to his family, as well as independent analysts with an interest in the case, it all comes down to the origins of a letter received in the Bucharest headquarters of Romania Libera (RL), the opposition newspaper owned by Adamescu’s father before he suffered an unfair trial and an untimely death after enduring horrific prison conditions.

Adamescu argues against extradition partly due to prison conditions in Romania not meeting basic standards of human rights, and a key definition from the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) is about space per prisoner. The letter - supposedly signed by the Director of the Romanian National Administration of Penitentiaries (NAP) - admits that Romania cannot meet its obligations under international law nor supply the guarantees on prison conditions that it has given in Adamescu’s case.

I am told it arrived at RL on January 30^th, just a day before Adamescu’s extradition hearing was due to recommence in London. RL’s journalists had already launched several investigations into NAP and their scrutiny persuaded them this letter was genuine, so a scanned copy was sent on to the family. Adamescu passed this to his legal team and it was submitted it at court. Apparently, there was some concern around the letter turning up so fortuitously, but the lack of time before the hearing meant a quick decision had to be made.

However, Adamescu’s legal team could not prove the letter’s provenance, leading to doubts about its authenticity. The judge declared it a potential forgery and revoked Adamescu’s bail as a precaution. Though the Westminster judge did not declare Adamescu a forger, that has not stopped some in the pro-Romanian-state press from declaring otherwise.

Some might argue the letter merely said what many of us know already: that Romania’s prisons are overcrowded, and that it cannot guarantee the required amount of space for any prisoner. The ECtHR has found that Romania has violated human rights on prison conditions time and again. Indeed, Romania is the worst violator of human rights on this point in the entire European Union. The NAP has made these same admissions on its inability to provide adequate space per prisoner in numerous extradition cases in the UK, leading to EAWs to Romania being repeatedly refused.

The Romanian prosecutors were so quick to declare the letter a forgery there are suspicions of a set up. “I think it was an operation by the SRI (Romanian intelligence service) designed to undermine Alexander’s credibility. This is classic Romanian deep state” alleged one source. That claim is not easy to prove, but if the letter was a trap it has succeeded spectacularly. Not only has Adamescu been imprisoned, but sources claim this has stalled the arbitration he launched against Romania in 2016 for its “wrongful attempts” to damage the family’s businesses. He is the lead witness and victory could potentially cost the state hundreds of millions of Euros in damages.

Only time will tell what the real story is and whether Adamescu has been the victim of the Romanian ‘deep state’, but in the meantime there are serious questions for Romania on its commitment to the rule of law.

Author

Emily Barley, Chairman of Conservatives for Liberty, 10 June 2018

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