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#Romania - The EU must act now

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Evidence of Romania’s horrendous human rights record continues to mount, writes Emily Barley, but when will the EU finally take action?

Through the European Arrest Warrant (EAW) system every person living in an EU member state is at risk of the sub-standard criminal justice systems in countries like Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, and the worst offender – Romania.

For many years charities, campaigners, and commentators have been drawing attention to the political interference in the judiciary that leads to unfair trials, the corrupt over-reach of the intelligence services, and the medieval conditions of the country’s prisons. Meanwhile, the EU has done nothing.

In the latest installment of this saga, Romania lost yet another case at the European Court of Human Rights. The court found that prison overcrowding, lack of access to medical care, dirty cells, infestations of insects and rodents, dirty drinking water, lack of hygiene facilities, lack of privacy for toilets, and lack of natural light and fresh air continue to be the norm across the Romanian prisons estate.

This latest judgment follows hundreds of others which found Romania consistently abuses the human rights of people in its care, placing the country as the worst violator in the EU and on a par with Russia and Ukraine.

Promises to bring things up to scratch with refurbishments and a prison building programme came to nothing, with the Romanian justice minister admitting that the whole plan – once diligently argued and presented to the Council of Europe – was a sham.

Is it any wonder, then, that in the UK Romania, and the EU’s lack of action over its abuses and lies, has become a prime example of the failings of the EU and the systems associated with it like the EAW? And the current flash point of that anger is the case of Alexander Adamescu, an aspiring playwright who lives with his wife and young children in London, he has been drawn into a row between his father and the Romanian government.

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Dan Adamescu was a businessman with interests including a newspaper, Romania Libera, which campaigned in favour of liberal democracy and against government corruption. This brought him into the firing line of the Romanian authorities, who pursued a fabricated, politically motivated case against him, threw him in one of the squalid prisons found to routinely violate prisoners’ rights, and denied him medical care. Adamescu died as a result, and his son, Alexander, took up his father’s cause from the UK.

British and German intelligence experts have lined up to expose the political conspiracy against the Adamescus, and stacks of evidence of the Romanians lying about prison conditions to secure extraditions – as well as their inability to meet Adamescus particular needs as an autistic and bipolar person – have been presented.

The problem he faces is that though it’s obvious to everybody with even minor knowledge of the case what is going on, the legal framework of the EU, as well as Romania’s dirty tricks of scaring and suppressing witnesses, mean that much of the evidence cannot be heard in open court. Adamescu’s fate is now almost sealed, with only the British Home Secretary able to step in, read all of the evidence, and save a man’s life.

This the place the EU’s inaction has brought us to, with individuals and governments unable to rely on the structures that are supposed to protect us all to do their jobs, and countries having to find their own work-arounds to avoid being complicit in corruption, political persecution, and the violation of human rights.

The EU must act now to reverse this sorry state of affairs, asserting the principles shared by many member states, or watch as piece by piece the alliance of nations disintegrates.

The opinions expressed in the above article are those of the author and do not reflect any opinion on the part of EU Reporter.

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EU Reporter publishes articles from a variety of outside sources which express a wide range of viewpoints. The positions taken in these articles are not necessarily those of EU Reporter.

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