Monday morning, the press office of the PÎCCJ, followed by that of the Ministry of Justice, went into a frenzy. One of the delicate secrets had been exposed, which they had hoped to keep under wraps. And its disclosure was similar to what happened to Klaus Iohannis during a safari in Kenya: the cursed transparency of institutions from other countries.
Last week, just when the criminal escaped from under the escort of the Prison Administration, the Minister of Justice, Alina Gorghiu, was spending intense days in Brazil together with the Attorney General Alex Florența. Both on public funds, of course.
Ms. Gorghiu's public agenda on the Ministry of Justice's website was empty, and unlike her other foreign visits, the directions from the ministry were not requested with any preparatory work.
After the criminal's escape, Ms. Gorghiu had no reaction, no microphone caught her gentle voice formulating the minister's pertinent position. Because the Minister had positions in Brazil.
Brazilians' Indiscretion
Things would have gone unnoticed because Ms. Gorghiu is always campaigning and doesn't really have much to do with the ministry anyway. But, bad luck!, the Minister of Justice in Brazil announced in a statement a meeting with the Romanian counterpart, and the Court of Justice in the state of Sao Paulo issued a statement with photos, due to the sinful habit of publishing the institutional agenda of the institution's president.
From the report of the Court of Justice in Sao Paulo, the Romanian press learned not only where the Minister and the Attorney General were staying, but also which illustrious figures accompanied them in the delegation that promoted Romanian justice in Brazil.
Therefore, according to the mentioned source and the invaluable photos, the following individuals traveled to Brazil on public funds: Alina-Ștefania Gorghiu (Minister of Justice), Alina Corina Corbu (President of the High Court of Cassation and Justice), Cătălin Oțel (Deputy Secretary General of the Ministry of Justice), Alex Florin Florența (Attorney General of the Public Ministry at the High Court of Cassation and Justice), Georgian Pop (Head of the National Reserves Administration).
In Romania, no press release, no report. Instead, in those exact days, Ms. Gorghiu was frenetically posting from the campaign in Argeș, as if she had never left.
On Sunday evening, we sent requests to both the Ministry of Justice and PICCJ for details regarding the trip: duration, purpose, composition of the delegation, what each member was doing in Brazil, and of course, the total cost of the trip.
So far, we have not received any response. But Sources from SpotMedia.ro say that only the plane tickets would have cost 13,000 lei per person.
Morning Brain Alert
Sources from SpotMedia.ro also say that the PICCJ press office was the first to go on alert, and on Monday morning at 7 o'clock, they started drafting a statement that was issued approximately an hour later. Read it here
The Attorney General indicates that it was a trip between April 8 and 12, during which he discussed with the Attorney General of the state of Sao Paulo and the Attorney General of Brazil about transnational organized crime, as well as with the Secretary General for National Drug Policy.
The PICCJ statement lists the delegation that we already knew from the Brazilians, but mistakenly or out of embarrassment, omits Georgian Pop.
Sources from the Ministry of Justice say that Ms. Gorghiu was taken by surprise by the PICCJ statement because it never crossed her mind to acknowledge the trip, and she was forced to also order one for herself, for which she sweated intensely and yelled at the press office. Read it here
Just as Mr. Iohannis went on safari and spent hakuna matata to put Romania on Africa's radar, Ms. Gorghiu was with the Attorney General and the rest of the entourage to put Romanian justice on the map in Brazil.
They gave an essential boost to "bilateral judicial cooperation between the two states, especially in the field of combating organized crime, in the field of cooperation between penitentiary systems, in the field of criminal law, in the development and professional training of their own staff, as well as for the promotion of human rights." It seems that the visit to Brazil was so intense that it elevated Ms. Gorghiu to new heights.
More prosaically, as the statement does not provide information, we looked for data on judicial cooperation with Brazil. Only DIICOT would have something, otherwise nothing, absolutely nothing, not even a fugitive at this moment.
And even if they did, the matter was already resolved, as acknowledged by the Ministry of Justice's statement, "Romania and Brazil having concluded an Extradition Treaty as early as 2003 and a Treaty on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters, ratified by the Brazilian state in 2023."
A few months ago, Ms. Gorghiu even complained about the high cost of extraditing two criminals from Brazil. If we receive information about the cost of the trip, we can compare the amounts.
But even if Ms. Gorghiu and Mr. Florența had something to say about the exotic reason for the trip, it is incomprehensible what the rest of the travelers were doing there. What was the Deputy Secretary General of the Ministry of Justice - Cătălin Oțel, the President of the High Court of Cassation and Justice - Corina Corbu, and the Head of the National Reserves Administration - Georgian Pop doing there?
According to the Brazilians, they were dealing with commercial relations with Brazil, establishing a "Consulate General in São Paulo" and addressing subjects related to technology, the digital era, and the challenges of artificial intelligence. On public funds, of course.
Upon returning to the country, Ms. Gorghiu did not see fit to check if the Ministry of Justice was still in place but went directly to campaign in Argeș, in Câmpulung, arm in arm with her colleague from Education, Ligia Deca.
She found time to announce on Facebook that the Senate adopted the "fugitive pays" project. But what about the Minister and the Attorney General?
Ms. Gorghiu had good teachers. In 2018, we revealed that the then Minister of Justice, Tudorel Toader, made 16 foreign trips in a year, costing 140,723 lei. In 14 of them, he was accompanied by Marieta Safta, who was brought in as a secretary of state from the Constitutional Court, where she had been Toader's right-hand woman.