Persecution of Gypsies Still Alive and Well in Romania


This morning, this article was the headline in Romanian media. Gypsies are still disciminated against just like they were hundreds of years ago. These are “our children” they are talking about!

Supreme Court admits President’s appeal in journalist case, rules no contravention
Still the wording ‘stinking gypsy’ is considered to be discriminatory.
published in issue 4182 page 1 at 2008-05-16
BUCHAREST – Judges with the High Court of Appeals (ICCJ) Thursday admitted the appeal filed by President Traian Basescu against the ruling November 8, 2007 by the Bucharest Court of Appeals (CAB), thereby the head of state had been rejected his request to have the warning handed by the National Council for Combating Discrimination (CNCD) cancelled, for the wording ‘stinking gypsy’ he used when he spoke of a journalist. The judges however retained the CAB’s remark that the words ‘stinking gypsy’ are discriminatory.

The Supreme Court overturned the CAB ruling, deciding that the president’s gesture cannot be considered an offence. The ICCJ ruling is unchallengeable.

The court had adjourned until May 8, having heard the arguments presented by the lawyers for President Traian Basescu and by the CNCD representative, Cristian Nuica, and its president, Csaba Asztalos.

Traian Basescu’s lawyer, Robert Ros, argued that the ruling by the Bucharest Court of Appeals should be quashed, given there is no such thing as an offence, since the recording was illegal and against the president’s will, and the decision to sanction him was the result of media pressure.

The CNCD representative, Cristian Nuica, said that according to the norms of the European Court of Human Rights, the private life of politicians blends perfectly with their public life. ‘The European Court states that politicians are those people whose two lifestyles combine perfectly through their duties and their role in public life,’ said lawyer Nuica.

The CNCD president, Csaba Asztalos, drew the judges’ attention to the consequences of the statement by Romania’s President.

When 70 per cent of Romania’s population hold that Roma should not travel abroad, when 70 per cent of the people in this country say they would not have Roma people as their neighbours, and when a person with Traian Basescu’s status made such statement (’stinking gypsy’), who should be held accountable, the person who made the statement or the person to whom it was addressed?” the CNCD President asked.

by Ioana Micu

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