A former secretary of state escapes criminal liability by the statute of limitations. The employee who lied for him, permanently convicted
The Ilfov court decided on Thursday, December 18, the termination of the criminal trial in the case of Ionel Minea, former secretary of state in the Ministry of Transport, on the grounds that the facts are time-barred, according to Hotnews. However, the decision is not final. The employee who lied for him already got himself a permanent conviction.
Minea asked the subordinate to say that he drove the car. PHOTO FB Ionel Minea
“Orders the termination of the criminal proceedings against the defendant Minea Ionel for the commission of the crimes of: – inciting the commission of the crime of forgery in statements, provided for by art. 47 related to art. 326 paragraph 1 of the Criminal Code (deadline no later than 11.02.2024) and – improper participation in the crime of intellectual forgery, provided for by art. 52 paragraph 3 of the Criminal Code according to art. 321 of the Criminal Code (deadline on 29.02.2024), as a result of the intervention of the limitation of criminal liability“, it is stated in the decision pronounced on Thursday.
The statute of limitations means that the legal term in which he could be held liable has expired.
The decision is not final.
Dumitru Nistor Stejărel, the employee who lied for him, falsely stating that he was driving the car at the time of the contravention, was definitively sentenced as early as March 2022, when he received a two-year and two-month suspended prison sentence, after previously concluding a plea agreement.
He had his employee lie for him
The former Secretary of State in the Ministry of Transport Ionel Minea was caught by the radar driving at 201 km/h on the Autostrada Soarelui in 2019, but he made his chief of staff say that he was behind the wheel, according to DNA allegations, which sent him to court. The case is similar to other situations where dignitaries tried to avoid traffic penalties by using subordinates to take over the penalty points.
Minea was sued by the DNA for improper participation in abuse of office, but the Ilfov Court changed the legal framework, on the grounds that he did not violate a primary legislation.
The statute of limitations expired even after the first judge assigned to judge the case came out with the sentence, according to the source cited.
The judicial investigation was completed in October 2023. The judge, having issued a ruling, successively postponed the sentence from October until January when he moved from the Ilfov Court to the Slobozia Penitentiary as a delegated judge to supervise preventive measures.
In February 2024 (the statute of limitations), the case was restarted from scratch by the judge on whose desk it arrived. The trial on the merits ended in February 2025. From that moment until December 18, the sentence in the Minea case was postponed 23 times.
