SNC-Lavalin Paid for Gadhafi Son's Prostitutes While He Was in Canada

This story is a dramatic episode in the extraordinary political turmoil

happening in Canada this week.

See: The Other Mind-Blowing Testimony Today - Justin Trudeau is in Deep Trouble for a quick summary of these remarkable events.

Receipts show $30,000 in payments to Saadi Gadhafi

for sexual services in Canada in 2008

Corruption is Everywhere - Even in Canada

In this Tuesday, July 3, 2001 file photo, Saadi Gadhafi, son of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi,

smiles during a press conference at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan in Tokyo.

AP Photo/Tsugufumi Matsumoto

Marie-Danielle Smith, National Post

OTTAWA — New details have emerged about Quebec engineering giant SNC-Lavalin’s cozy relationship with the son of former Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi, including the company allegedly hiring prostitutes for him during a visit to Canada a decade ago.

The sordid tale, revealed by Quebec newspaper La Presse Wednesday, comes to light as former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould testifies about whether she was unduly pressured last fall to help SNC-Lavalin avoid federal corruption charges associated with their business dealings in Libya.

Receipts gathered during an investigation of a former SNC-Lavalin executive show $30,000 in payments to Saadi Gadhafi for sexual services in Canada in 2008, La Presse reported. The documentation can now be revealed publicly because the prosecution of Stéphane Roy, former vice-president of SNC-Lavalin, on fraud and bribery charges was dropped last week due to court delays.

In 2008, Gadhafi was ostensibly travelling to Montreal and Toronto to conduct business and improve his English, at the invitation of SNC-Lavalin. He had helped the company secure billions in public contracts in Libya — thanks also to millions in bribes to Libyan officials, the RCMP has alleged — and visited Canada on three previous occasions. But he spent much of his time on other extracurricular pursuits, according to La Presse’s reporting.

For the duration of his stay, SNC-Lavalin hired Garda World, a Montreal-based company, to provide security for the dictator’s son, and they hired four bodyguards as contractors. That focus on security “degenerated,” a spokeswoman for the company, Isabelle Panelli, told the newspaper.

The bodyguards handled Gadhafi’s expenses and provided receipts to SNC-Lavalin, according to court testimony by an RCMP investigator. Transactions they wrote in as “companion services” in their expense reports would cost between $600 and $7,500 each. Close to $10,000 in services went to a single escort service in Vancouver. Other payments went to a Montreal strip club and covered events at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, such as box seats for a Spice Girls concert.

The SNC-Lavalin headquarters is seen in Montreal.

The investigation showed that SNC-Lavalin was writing off the expenses as associated with construction projects in Libya, La Presse reported, with the total bill for Gadhafi’s trip totalling nearly $2 million.

Roy had testified in court that expenses associated with the trip were justified, and that he had the receipts to prove it. The expenses were justified at the time, testified another former executive, Riadh Ben Aissa — who, meanwhile, pled guilty last year to a forgery charge associated with allegations that SNC-Lavalin executives defrauded the McGill University University Health Centre of $22.5 million in a bid-rigging scheme.

Panelli told La Presse that Garda World tried to intervene and stop the practice, but then lost the contract with SNC-Lavalin. She told the newspaper that most employees who were around then are no longer with the company.

Garda World told the National Post it had no comment to offer beyond the La Presse report, and a spokesman for SNC-Lavalin would only say: “We have no comment on this matter.”

The company has argued that its corporate culture is completely different now than it was a decade ago, and that its current senior executives were not involved in the alleged corruption.

SNC-Lavalin remains Canada’s biggest engineering firm, employing thousands of people across the country and particularly in Quebec. There, the provincial premier and much of the commentariat have argued that there would be good economic reasons for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to ask an attorney general to help the company avoid criminal prosecution.

Good idea, as long as you don't have any integrity or expectation of corporate Canada actually following the law.

But then we should at least stop telling China that we are a nation of laws and there is no political interference in the judicial system. This is what Trudeau told China when Huawei's CFO was arrested, about the same time he was twisting our Attorney-General's are to intervene for SNC-Lavalin.

The Other Mind-Blowing Testimony Today - Justin Trudeau is in Deep Trouble

While Michael Cohen was sabotaging Donald Trump's Presidency, Canada's Justin Trudeau was being lambasted in a Parliamentary Committee by his ex-Attorney General. Both are astonishing stories. You can read about the USA mess just about anywhere; here is the mind-blowing Canadian story that could bring down Justin Trudeau.

The story has to do with one of Canada's largest engineering companies, SNC-Lavalin. It was charged last year with paying bribes to Muammar Qaddafi for a construction contract in Libya. The decision was made to prosecute SNC-Lavalin on corruption charges.

The problem here becomes very political. SNC-Lavalin is headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, and employs thousands of people in Quebec and across Canada. If found guilty, the punishment would restrict SNC-Lavalin from bidding on any Canadian Government contracts for 10 years. They could continue to bid on international contracts but the Canadian suspension would certainly result in a lot of jobs lost, many of them in Quebec. I believe the company may have threatened the government that it might pull out of Canada completely.

Quebec is the centre of the Liberal Party's world. It usually wins a lot of seats in that province, and without it, cannot win enough seats to form a national government. Trudeau and the Prime Minister's Office is keenly aware of the dangers with a federal election due in October. So, what does he do? He, and at least 10 other people from the PMO, the Privy Council, and Ministry of Finance begin to twist the arm of Jody Wilson-Raybould.

Jody Wilson-Raybould (JWR) was appointed Attorney General of Canada with great fanfare, being a woman, and an  indigenous woman. Trudeau chose his cabinet very carefully, based on their sex, colour, sexual persuasion, and religion. 50% women, lots of Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus, and who knows what - but definitely no Christians, and several gay people. 

JWR was one of two indigenous people in the cabinet, the other had to resign for sexual improprieties. 

I have long complained that the cabinet was based on appearance and that some very capable and talented people were overlooked because they happened to be white men. But it must have come as quite a shock to Trudeau to find that one of those women is principled, excruciatingly honest, and has a high degree of integrity. 

After dozens of attempts to persuade her to break the law and interfere in the judicial process, he finally shuffled her out of the Attorney-General's office and demoted her to a lesser ministry. She did not take that well, at least if you are a Liberal. She decided to resign from cabinet and either she, or someone close to her, leaked the story that she had been improperly influenced by senior people to interfere in the legal system for the benefit of SNC-Lavalin and, of course, the Liberal Party.

Trudeau flat out denied the story but the pressure was on from opposition parties to hold inquiries. The Justice Committee was the first to bite, but immediately restricted the guest list to people who had nothing to do with the affair. One reporter on Twitter reported it something like this: The committee investigating the fox and the hens is restricting testimony to the mouse and the rusty old shovel.

JWR stood in the House of Commons and expressed her desire to testify, but claimed she was restricted by solicitor-client privilege as well as cabinet privilege. After some considerable pressure, Trudeau released her from those privileges and allowed her to speak. She spoke this afternoon and it was stunning.

CBC:

Wilson-Raybould said she was contacted by 11 officials in the Prime Minister's Office, the Privy Council and Finance Minister Bill Morneau's office on the matter when she served as justice minister and attorney general.

"For a period of four months from September to December 2018, I experienced a consistent and sustained effort by many people within the government to seek to politically interfere in the exercise of prosecutorial discretion in my role as the attorney general of Canada in an inappropriate effort to secure a Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA) with SNC-Lavalin."

Wilson-Raybould said she was "hounded" by various officials through phone calls, meetings and text messages.

'Veiled threats'

"Within these conversations there were express statements regarding the necessity of interfering in the SNC-Lavalin matter, the potential of consequences, and veiled threats if a DPA was not made available to SNC-Lavalin," she said.

The very fact that JWR was demoted in cabinet would seem to verify that she was not just threatened but the PM made good on those threats.

I have always thought that if Trudeau were leader of an autocratic country, that he would be a brutal dictator.

She chronicled a series of meetings, including one with Trudeau and Privy Council clerk Michael Wernick on Sept. 17, 2018. She told him that she had made a decision not to overturn the decision from the director of the Public Prosecution Service Kathleen Roussel to proceed with criminal prosecution against SNC-Lavalin.

The prime minister cited potential job losses and the possible move by the company, and asked her to "help out." The clerk then made the case for a DPA and reminded there was an election coming in Quebec.

"At that point, the prime minister jumped in, stressing that there is an election in Quebec, and that, 'I am an MP in Quebec, the MP for Papineau,'" she recounted. 'I was quite taken aback."

At that point, Wilson-Raybould said, she posed a direct question to Trudeau while looking him straight in the eye, asking if he was politically interfering with her role and her decision as the attorney general.

"I would strongly advise against it," she told the committee she warned Trudeau, who responded, "No, no, no, we just need to find a solution."

Apparently, allowing justice to take its course was not a solution!

This is a huge problem for Justin Trudeau and his very Liberal Party, as opinion polls are already showing a downward trend. It also puts the newly appointed AG in a nasty position - interfere with the judicial system or lose the next election. If he does choose to interfere, it may well cost the very Liberal Party the next election anyway.

Trudeau has inspired a lot of left-leaning people. They have faith that he is one of the people most likely to save the planet from global warming, from war, and from nationalism. Finding out that he is a hypocrite, on top of several stupid stunts he has pulled, hits the faithful very hard. But he is first and foremost a politician and winning the next election is the most important thing. So important that he is willing to pressure others to break the law and act in a manner not fit for a minister in the government of Canada.

This is also a problem for Canada's mainstream media. They are head-over-heels in love with Trudeau and his very Liberal Party and are loath to bring meaningful criticism against him. For instance - last December, when the CFO of Huawei was arrested in Vancouver on a USA warrant, Trudeau answered complaints from China by lecturing them on the fact that Canada is a nation of laws and there is no political interference in those laws. He said that a few times. He said that while he was pressing JWR to interfere in the prosecution of SNC-Lavalin. The MSM seems to have conveniently forgotten that.

Expect lots of personal attacks in the MSM against JWR as they try to mitigate the disaster on the very Liberal Party.

The VICE File: Dick Cheney Declassified - National Security Archive

By Tom Blanton and Nate Jones

National Security Archive

Washington D.C., February 22, 2019 – The movie VICE, nominated for eight Academy Awards including the best picture Oscar, shows on screen several documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. Those documents relate to then-Vice President Dick Cheney’s meetings with oil company lobbyists discussing potential drilling in Iraq. But at least a dozen other declassified records deserve screen time before Sunday’s Oscars show, according to the National Security Archive’s publication today of primary sources from Cheney’s checkered career.

The documents show how Cheney built a rap sheet for drunk driving and arranged draft deferments in the 1960s, pitched in on President Gerald R. Ford’s unsuccessful veto of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in 1974, helped undermine investigations of CIA scandals in 1975, excused President Ronald Reagan’s Iran-contra misdeeds in 1987, mistakenly distrusted Gorbachev and slowed the end of the Cold War in 1989, promoted the global hegemon role for the U.S. in 1992, hid his work with oil companies in 2001 to set energy policy, endorsed torture and warrantless surveillance in the 2000s, played a leading role in trashing Iraq and the Middle East from the Iraq invasion in 2003 to the present, mysteriously went whole days at the White House without his Vice President’s office generating any saved e-mail, and presented a danger to civilians whether they were armed or not by shooting his hunting partner in 2006.

His slowing of the end of the Cold War was, I believe, nothing to do with misjudging Gorbachev, but everything to do with not wanting the Cold War to end. It was Deep State madness and it continues today.

See also:

Sy Hersh and a Brief History of Deep State and American Covert Operations

Common themes emerge from the documents, including Cheney’s long-standing commitment to defending and expanding presidential power, especially on national security matters, a predilection for the “dark side” in CIA operations from the scandals of the 1970s to the War on Terror, and his disastrously wrong foreign policy judgment. Cheney explained his intellectual history to reporters in 2005 by saying, “Watergate and a lot of the things around Watergate and Vietnam both during the ’70s served, I think, to erode the authority I think the president needs to be effective,” and went on to cite the Iran-Contra congressional committee minority report published below.

The documents posted today provide fascinating context for some of Cheney’s most famous moments. After 9/11, on September 16, 2001, Cheney told NBC’s Tim Russert, “We also have to work, though, sort of the dark side, if you will. We've got to spend time in the shadows in the intelligence world. A lot of what needs to be done here will have to be done quietly, without any discussion, using sources and methods that are available to our intelligence agencies, if we're going to be successful.” Just before the invasion of Iraq, on March 16, 2003, Cheney told Russert that when the United States goes in, “we will, in fact, be greeted as liberators.” The vice president was adamant: “to suggest that we need several hundred thousand troops there after military operations cease, after the conflict ends, I don’t think is accurate. I think that’s an overstatement.” Cheney’s message proved to be far from correct. According to a December 2014 Congressional Research Report entitled, “The Cost of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Other Global War on Terror Operations Since 9/11,” the United States spent an estimated $815 billion on the Iraq War, including military operations, base support, weapons maintenance, training Iraq security forces, reconstruction, foreign aid, embassy costs, and veterans’ health care, while more than 4,410 Americans were killed in action and 31,957 wounded in action during the fighting in Iraq.

The documents can be viewed on the NSA web site.

National Security Archive
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The George Washington University
Website The National Security Archive

The National Security Archive is a 501(c)(3) non-governmental, non-profit research and archival institution located on the campus of the George Washington University in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1985 to check rising government secrecy, the National Security Archive is an investigative journalism center, open government advocate, international affairs research institute, and is the largest repository of declassified U.S. documents outside the federal government.[1] The National Security Archive has spurred the declassification of more than 10 million pages of government documents by being the leading non-profit user of the U.S. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), filing a total of more than 50,000 FOIA and declassification requests in its nearly 30+ year history.

IDF Soldiers Get 6 Months Jail Time Over Beating Handcuffed & Blindfolded Palestinians

This story comes from RT which is definitely antisemitic as are most of its readers.

Why I include it here will be obvious at the end of the article.

© Reuters/Mussa Qawasma

Two of the five Israeli soldiers accused of severely beating restrained Palestinian prisoners have reached a plea agreement with military prosecutors. They’ll be demoted in ranks and get six and a half months in jail.

The soldiers are the first of the five belonging to the ultra-Orthodox Netzah Yehuda Battalion to admit to beating a father and his teenage son who remain in Israeli custody without charges. While the plea agreement will help them avoid more serious charges of aggravated assault, they will still face six and a half months in prison and a demotion.

Negotiations are ongoing regarding charges against the remaining three soldiers whose detention has been extended until Wednesday. Two of the five are also being charged with obstruction of justice for attempting to collaborate their stories beforehand.

The Israeli soldiers were arrested on January 10, days after allegedly striking their Palestinian prisoners “with slaps, punches and bludgeons while they were handcuffed and blindfolded, causing them serious injuries,” the IDF said.

According to the indictment, the soldiers’ removed the teenager boy’s blindfold and forced him to watch his father being beaten. The father’s injuries were so severe he was unable to be interrogated and had to be hospitalized. The teenager also sustained serious heads wounds and significant swelling to his face.

A video of the incident revealed the soldiers joyfully laughing as the prisoners are being beaten while they cry out for help.

The two Palestinians were detained in a wave of arrests after a shooter killed two members of the IDF soldiers’ battalion in December. Prosecutors believe the beatings were motivated by revenge.

No doubt they are right about that.

The Truth Is:

This is an amazing example of Israeli intolerance of inhuman behaviour, even by its own forces at a time of such violence. This action of justice could never have happened in the Palestinian territories. Palestinian soldiers torturing Israelis would be heroes, not criminals; they would be rewarded, not jailed. Yet, it is Israel that receives the condemnation in the international press. 

‘Syria is Awash with Illegality’: UK Hid SAS Involvement in Syria to Avoid Being ‘Allied to US’

A British soldier demonstrates anti-terrorist tactics © AFP / Leila Gorchev

The UK doesn’t want to be seen deploying special forces with the likes of the US, an ex-UN chief told RT, suggesting Syria is awash with “illegality,” after the British MoD admitted its personnel are active in the war-torn nation.

Despite British MPs voting in December 2015 for ‘approved airstrikes only’ in Syria, the Ministry of Defence’s admission came after a freedom of information request relating to the death of SAS soldier, Sergeant Matt Tonroe, who was killed in March last year.

Former UN chief & humanitarian coordinator for Iraq, Hans-Christof von Sponeck, suggested that the UK does not want to give the impression it is “allied to the US” in Syria because of past ventures into Iraq and Afghanistan, which do not play well with the British public.

The Truth Is:

SAS involvement is never made known or, apparently, given approval by Parliament. Nor does it seem to be restricted by Parliament. 

Asked whether the US is essentially driving these decisions to deploy special forces on the ground, and not the UK, von Sponeck replied: “Of course,” but added that the Turks were also highly influential when it came to ground-force deployment.

Special forces serviceman Tonroe was killed along with two US soldiers fighting Islamic State in Syria, the Times reported. In a statement, the Ministry of Defence has ostensibly argued that any British ground forces operating in Syria act as if they were a soldier of the nation they’re embedded with.

“British forces embedded in the armed forces of other nations operate as if they were the host nation’s personnel, under that nation’s chain of command,” the ministry said.

Historian and journalist Mark Curtis has taken to social media to highlight the fact that British military personnel are embedded with US military commands around the world. He argues that not enough is being made public on the matter.

Mark Curtis✔
@markcurtis30
 UK military personnel are embedded in various US military commands. Hardly anything is public on this.  https://bit.ly/2SXFJ2p   https://bit.ly/2Ef2i8O   https://bit.ly/2tDCqOJ 

Former head of the British Joint Forces Command, Sir Richard Barrons, has suggested that numerous countries have been conducting “proxy assistance” in Syria without explicitly declaring direct involvement in military operations.

There are so many different factions and different secret operations groups working is Syria that it is virtually impossible to know who's side anyone is really on. Europe and the USA need to get out of Syria completely, not just the regular troops.

I'm convinced major military commanders are constantly looking for a place to practice their trade. 

Britain to Blacklist Hezbollah in Its Entirety as a Terror Group

UK home secretary says Shiite militia’s political arm is no longer distinguishable from its already-banned military wing; Israeli FM welcomes move, calls on UN to follow suit

By TOI STAFF and AGENCIES

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah speaks on June 29, 2018. (YouTube screenshot)

The United Kingdom on Monday moved to outlaw the Lebanese organization Hezbollah and recognize it in its entirety as a terror group, the British government said in a statement.

The powerful Iran-backed Shiite terror group is part of a new government announced recently in Lebanon. While the cabinet is headed by Saad Hariri, the Western-backed Sunni politician who has held the job since 2016, Hezbollah made significant gains at the expense of the largest Sunni party and now controls three government ministries.

Hezbollah has a decades-long history of conflict with Israel, including the bloody Second Lebanon War in 2006, and its leader Hassan Nasrallah regularly threatens to target Israel with thousands of advanced missiles that can reach all major Israeli cities.

Hezbollah’s military wing had already been banned in Britain as a terror group, but its political wing was not.

“Hezbollah is continuing in its attempts to destabilize the fragile situation in the Middle East – and we are no longer able to distinguish between their already banned military wing and the political party,” Home Secretary Sajid Javid said Monday. “Because of this, I have taken the decision to proscribe the group in its entirety."

Britain’s Home Secretary Sajid Javid leaves after attending a cabinet meeting in Downing Street in London, September 24, 2018.

(AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

“My priority as Home Secretary is to protect the British people,” he added. “As part of this, we identify and ban any terrorist organization which threatens our safety and security, whatever their motivations or ideology which is why I am taking action against several organizations today.”

The move was welcomed by Israel’s foreign minister, who called for the United Nations to follow suit.

“I would like to praise the British government on the decision to recognize the entire Hezbollah organization as a terrorist organization,” Israel Katz wrote on Twitter.

“In my upcoming meeting with the UN secretary-general in New York next week I will stress that the UN institutions should take a similar resolution.”

A draft order will be laid in parliament on Monday, and, if approved, will go into force on Friday. It blacklists Hezbollah along with Ansar ul Islam and Jama’at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM), two groups that are active in northwestern Africa.

“We are staunch supporters of a stable and prosperous Lebanon,” said Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt. “We cannot however be complacent when it comes to terrorism – it is clear the distinction between Hezbollah’s military and political wings does not exist, and by proscribing Hezbollah in all its forms, the government is sending a clear signal that its destabilizing activities in the region are totally unacceptable and detrimental to the UK’s national security.

Britain’s Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt leaves 10 Downing Street in London on November 14, 2018.

(Tolga AKMEN / AFP)

“This does not change our ongoing commitment to Lebanon, with whom we have a broad and strong relationship,” Hunt added.

The leader of the British Labour opposition party has famously referred to Hezbollah and the Palestinian terror group Hamas as his “friends.” He has since apologized for the remark.

A ban on Hebzollah would outlaw the flying of its banners at events such as the annual Iranian-inspired Quds Day rallies in London.

Lebanese Prime Minister Hariri earlier this month indicated that his new government would allow Hezbollah to keep its weapons, which, since its war against Israel in 2006, it has frequently used since to threaten Israel.

Not that he actually has the power to remove their weapons. They would blow him up, like they did his father.

Hariri said that Lebanese citizens have the right to “resist Israeli occupation and repel its aggression,” in reference to the terror group’s right to keep its weapons.

Under UN Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 Second Lebanon War between Israel and Hezbollah, Lebanon committed to disarming the Iran-backed terror group.

US President Donald Trump’s administration and others have expressed concerns about Hezbollah holding three cabinet posts and called on the new government to ensure that group is not supported by the ministries’ resources.

Hezbollah was formed in 1982 under the guidance of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to combat Israel. It has been Iran’s most successful investment abroad, serving as the Islamic Republic’s arm at Israel’s doorstep.

Lebanese Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri, speaks during a press conference, in Beirut, Lebanon, November 13, 2018. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

The group dominates the political and military landscape of Lebanon and possesses tens of thousands of trained fighters, as well as an array of sophisticated armaments. Its intervention in Syria on the side of President Bashar Assad also expanded its influence and reach in the region.

At home, Hezbollah remains the unrivaled armed force, also making significant political gains along with allies in the last parliamentary elections. This positioned the group to secure three ministerial posts in the new government, including the powerful Health Ministry, which has one of the country’s largest budgets.

The Truth Is:
Hezbollah's power and influence in Lebanon and the region continues to grow. Like Iran, their benefactor, they seem to be singly focused on destroying Israel. This madness can only have one conclusion.

Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, welcomed the British move and said he would “continue to lead the fight to have Hezbollah recognized as a terror organization by the Security Council and recruit the international community against a group that is an arm for Iran’s aggression.”

Corruption is Everywhere - But in the Upper Echelons of the EC?

EC reacts to news of criminal file opened on Frans Timmermans: Romanian authorities have no jurisdiction

Posted by: Victor Lupu  in POLITICS, TOP NEWS 

European Commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas has said on Thursday, referring to the file opened with the special section for investigating offenses in the justice system against EC Vice-President Frans Timmermans (photo) and European Commissioner Vera Jourova , that Romanian authorities have no jurisdiction on such issues, ziare.com informs.

“The European Commission has learned from the press that the Romanian authorities have launched a criminal investigation against several officials of the Commission, for their activity. Although we do not comment on national judicial matters, we would like to remind the Romanian authorities they have no jurisdiction in such matters. All European Commission officials, in official positions, are subjects to the Court of Justice of the European Union and are under the protection of the Protocol on Privileges and Immunities in the Treaties, accepted by all Member States, including Romania. We should remind that the EC representatives have expressed yesterday serious concerns on the situation of the rule of law in Romania,” Margaritis Schinas said.

On Wednesday reports said that prosecutor Adina Florea has registered a criminal file on the name of Frans Timmermans, First Vice-President of the European Commission, with the special section for investigating offenses in the justice system, following a complaint filed by a website close to PSD – ‘Lumea justitiei’ (luju.ro), digi24.ro informed.

The section has received a criminal complaint from Lumea justitiei (luju.ro) concerning several high ranking European and Romanian officials: Frans Timmermans, First Vice-President of the European Commission; Vera Jourova, European commissioner for Justice; Augustin Lazar, Prosecutor General of Romania and Angela Cristea, the head of the EC Representation in Romania.

The complaint also targets those who have edited the latest Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM) report released on November 13, 2018.

All of them should be summoned for hearings, luju.ro reads. According to the source, they are charged with setting up an organized criminal group, abuse of office, forgery and release of false information. The denouncement was filed on January 30, 2019.

Luju.ro reads that the European officials could be investigated by the special section, as the Criminal Code, article 10, paragraph (1) reads that ‘the Romanian criminal law is enforced for offenses committed abroad by a foreign citizen or by a person without citizenship, against the Romanian state, against a Romanian citizen or against Romanian legal persons.’

Is EC protecting its authority, or are the protecting criminals?