After five days spent in the Gherla Penitentiary, the former minister Sorina Pintea claims that she does not support the prison regime. Asked the judges to interrupt the execution of the sentence

The former Minister of Health, Sorina Pintea has submitted a request regarding the interruption of the execution of the Punishment of the Cluj Tribunal five days after reaching the Gherla Penitentiary. On June 6, Pintea was sentenced to 3 years and 6 months imprisonment for taking bribes.

The Cluj Court set a deadline for judging the request of Sorina Pintea only in the fall, on November 27, according to the data on the court portal.

The interruption, for a certain period, of the execution of the prison sentence can be ordered at the request of the convicted person, when it is found, on the basis of a forensic expertise, that it suffers from a disease that cannot be treated in the health network of the National Penitentiary Administration and which makes it impossible to execute the penalty.

The measure can only be taken if the specificity of the disease does not allow it to be treated with the permanent security in the health network of the Ministry of Health and if “the court considers that the interruption of execution and the release does not present a danger to the public order”.

Health problems brought him a lower punishment

Sorina Pintea suffers from an inflammatory-dermatological, autoimmune condition, according to the decision of the courts in Cluj who ordered her conviction. It was diagnosed with this condition in November 2019, one month before receiving the first bribe, the 10,000 euros.

Both at the court and at the Court of Appeal, the lawyers asked the judges to order a suspended sentence, invoking the condition of Sorina Pintea. They warned that in the absence of proper treatment, the disease would worsen and would endanger his life.

The last medical documents submitted to the file did not indicate an aggravation of the state of health, but a stability. However, the judges took into account the health problems of Sorina Pintea and applied a punishment to a minimum provided by law: 3 years and 6 months.

“Based on the real circumstances, a sentence or 9 years and 9 months imprisonment would have been applied,” explains the judge of the Cluj Court in the reasoning of the sentence.

At the Court of Appeal, the lawyers of Sorina Pintea again invoked her health problems. However, the judges established that “the high gavity of the deed cannot be completely canceled” by the personal circumstances and indicated the possibility of the request to interrupt the punishment.

“The sentence to imprisonment with execution does not deny the right to health of the defendant, because the possible aggravation of the disease can be considered to interrupt the execution of the sentence, under the conditions of art. 589 rap. At art. 592 Criminal Procedure Code”, mentioned the judges of the Cluj Court of Appeal in May 6.

Bribed by a businessman who had business with the hospital

Former Minister of Health in the Dăncilă Government, Sorina Pintea was sued by DNA following a flagrant, in February 2020, at her office at the hospital in Baia Mare.

Pintea had received a bag with 120,000 lei from a businessman with whom he had an extremely close relationship, the judges in motivation shows.

He was the one who bribe on the Sorin Pintea-business circuit that carried out contracts with the hospital, accused the prosecutors.

According to DNA, in December 2019, the former Minister of Health had received 10,000 euros from the same intermediary from another businessman.

The money was from the company involved in carrying out the project to arrange the operating block- cardiovascular and thoracic surgery- of the hospital led by the former minister.

Over 600 messages between Sorina Pintea and the bribe were discovered by prosecutors in the phones of the two.