ZIUA director Sorin Rosca Stanescu had a press conference yesterday. He disclosed attempts to discredit ZIUA and attack against this daily. He also announced he was under criminal investigations in the Rompetrol case. Sorin Rosca Stanescu provided journalists with a document showing prosecutors handling this case ordered checks on the bank accounts of 158 people and companies. The ZIUA director also voiced accusation against the interception of his phone calls and political pressure on ZIUA coming from Cluj. Yesterday Sorin Rosca Stanescu also informed he had written criminal complaint against prosecutors Adriana Cristescu and Ciprian Nastasiu for their orders on bank account checks, as well as for their unmotivated refusal to provide him with a copy of his own statement as witness in the Rompetrol case. The ZIUA director opined it was this complained that turned him from witness into accused in only two weeks. Two hours after the press conference, Sorin Rosca Stanescu went to the Prosecutor's Office for questioning in the Rompetrol case. Before him businessman Dinu Patriciu had been interrogated too and prosecutors had informed him about more investigations to be done. At the end of the questioning, the ZIUA director accused president Basescu of directing the Rompetrol scandal. He asked for the stenograms of his phone calls and the legal grounds why they were intercepted. Sorin Rosca Stanescu also emphasized his talks with Traian Basescu on the Rompetrol case, which the two had had before and after Basescu became president of Romania. The ZIUA director decided to suspend himself from the Romanian Press Club for as long as criminal investigations against him lasted. Yesterday charges were also pressed against former telecommunication minister Sorin Pantis in the same case. He was questioned shortly after the ZIUA director left the Prosecutor's Office.

George TARATA, Bogdan GALCA