Traian Băsescu, on the Georgescu case: “We must acknowledge that not even during Kovesi’s time were arrests made so long after the fact. The complaint is from two years ago, and you take him away in handcuffs today”

Traian Băsescu criticized, on Monday evening, on B1 TV, the authorities’ delayed intervention in the case of Călin Georgescu, claiming that the complaint in the case file had been filed approximately two years ago. The former president said he did not understand why Georgescu had been taken into custody only now and compared the situation with the period when Laura Codruța Kovesi led the National Anticorruption Directorate.

Băsescu said that the investigation was being presented publicly in a spectacular manner, through the dissemination of information from the case file and the presence of the press during the searches. He maintained that the investigated acts did exist, but that the inquiries should have been conducted “with decency,” not as a public spectacle.

The former president accused a contradiction between the criticism previously directed at DIICOT practices and the way the investigators’ actions are now being presented. At the same time, Băsescu rejected the idea that George Simion could take over Călin Georgescu’s electorate, stating that he has a distinct electoral base.

”We must acknowledge that not even during Kovesi’s time were arrests made so belatedly. At least Kovesi was prompt. In Georgescu’s case, there is the complaint from two years ago, and today you take him out in handcuffs and also release information from the case file, and you also notify the press to be present when you storm into the home search—a spectacle that I rejected during Mrs. Kovesi’s time as well, and which I reject now too. The only difference is that now it is being done precisely by those who criticized what Kovesi was doing,” Traian Băsescu said on Monday evening on B1 TV.