PNL leader, about the accusations of plagiarism against Radu Marinescu: “I don't think anyone will hold a minister who has some integrity problems”
The leader of the PNL senators, Daniel Fenechiu, states, in a reaction to HotNews, that Romanian society wants to have representatives with an “indisputable integrity”. However, he does not specifically say whether the PSD Minister of Justice, Radu Marinescu, should resign or not following the disclosures by PressOne, which wrote on Monday that he had plagiarized more than half of his doctoral thesis.
Daniel Fenechiu says that “the story is extremely simple”.
“We live in a society where we want all those who represent Romanians in public positions to have indisputable integrity. When a scandal like this occurs, and there have been a few examples, in general there have always been consequences,” said Daniel Fenechiu, when asked by HotNews if he thinks that Radu Marinescu should resign.
He recalled that in the past, when other ministers were accused of plagiarism, “sooner or later, in the situation where the accusations had some foundation, the consequence was the departure of the respective person from the ministerial position”.
PSD Minister of Justice, Radu Marinescu, accused of plagiarizing his doctoral thesis / The “copy-paste” method, used on text templates of up to 25 pages
“At the moment when this stone was thrown, it's a bit complicated to prove that things aren't quite like that”
Daniel Fenechiu says that “it is very difficult to comment on an accusation of plagiarism if you do not have relevant information” and emphasizes that Radu Marinescu is “a lawyer with expertise”.
“The fact that someone simply says that you plagiarized something, in my opinion, is not enough to create the conviction of the existence of plagiarism. But, on the other hand, at the moment when this stone was thrown, it is slightly complicated to prove that things are not quite like that. Marinescu is a trained lawyer, a lawyer with expertise, with experience, and I am convinced that in the event that he has something to say and disputes these things, he will do it in a credible manner. If, however, the accusations are correct, probably no matter what you say no one will believe you”, said Daniel Fenechiu.
Daniel Fenechiu: “Emilia Șercan works documented”
The HotNews reporter reminded Daniel Fenechiu that in the investigation published on Monday by Emilia Șercan in PressOne there is evidence of Radu Marinescu's plagiarism.
“I haven't seen the evidence, to be extremely honest. From this point of view, I am generally reserved, because, indeed, Emilia Șercan works documented. History has shown that when Șercan throws information like this on the market, it generally has convincing elements behind it,” answered Daniel Fenechiu.
“Certainly if what Emilia Șercan says is true, it is very difficult to remain in the ministerial team with such an accusation following you, because you are practically moving the whole discussion to your integrity, not to what you do, what you have to do or the important things for the ministry you manage”, he explained.
Emilia Șercan, about the doctoral thesis of the Minister of Justice: “I haven't seen such gross plagiarism for a long time”
Asked if, in the event that Radu Marinescu refuses to resign, he believes that Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan will decide to remove him from office, the PNL leader said that from his point of view “no one wants to offer another topic of discussion than the things that should happen and the solutions that must be found for the judicial system”.
“So, from this point of view, I don't think anyone will hold in their arms a minister who has some integrity problems, no matter what that minister's name is, whether he is from PSD, USR or PNL. You saw, it was the case of Moșteanu, he lasted two days. After two days, he left,” Daniel Fenechiu said.
The accusations of plagiarism against the Minister of Justice Radu Marinescu
More than half of the doctoral thesis in Law of the Minister of Justice, Radu Marinescu, is plagiarized, writes journalist Emilia Șercan in PressOne.
According to the analysis, at least 56.68% of the pages of the work entitled The system of evidence in the civil process contain text copied from other authors, more precisely 140 of the 247 pages of the work.
Radu Marinescu obtained the title of Doctor of Law in 2009, at the Faculty of Law and Administrative Sciences of the University of Craiova, under the supervision of Professor Ion Dogaru.
Radu Marinescu's reaction: “Why me?”
Radu Marinescu, reacted to the PressOne investigation published by journalist Emilia Șercan in which he is accused of having massively plagiarized his doctoral thesis, the Minister of Justice stating that “the truth cannot be synonymous with simple media allegations, even bizarre” and insisting that his thesis was “in accordance with the legislation at that time”.
In a post on his Facebook page, entitled “Why now? Why me?”, Radu Marinescu states that the article is “defamatory and full of contradictions, which obsessively resumes the slanders that were previously thrown at my back”.
He charges that the article “repeatedly insists on the procedure for the selection of prosecutors, launched by the Ministry of Justice just a few days ago (about why me and why now), without even using a software-based analysis.”
“Mrs. journalist Sercan Emilia accused me of plagiarism in my doctoral thesis, which I did not do!”, writes the minister, adding that he graduated from the Faculty of Law of the State University of Craiova as head of promotion and practiced as a lawyer for 30 years.
The Minister of Justice, reaction to the accusations of plagiarism in the doctoral thesis: “Why me?” / “We complied with the standards in accordance with the legislation at that time”
