The military information leak issue is now reaching a different stage. There have come out more aspects related to the Criminal Procedure Code, European laws and the Constitution of Romania. A journalist was arrested, but the inquiry in the Defense Ministry is making no progress. Nothing is actually happening, although it was from there that the information leaked. Prosecutors have moved fast as far as the press is concerned. They have proceeded to arrests incredibly fast. They question people on Saturdays and summon people by phone. Although Law 182/ 2002 says only authorized people must protect secret state information, investigators don't seem to care about it. Those supposed to protect information are safe and sound, whereas the journalists reached by such information have to drop by the Prosecutor's Office more and more often. There are lots of voices claiming Marian Garleanu, the journalist arrested and released one day later, is guilty of no crime. Such voices are grounded on the decision of the European Court of Human Rights, deciding that once it gets to the public space, information on national security may no longer be banned or taken back and those who spread it may not be punished. On the other hand, according to the Romanian Constitution, if there are discrepancies between pacts and treaties on fundamental human rights Romania subscribed to and interior laws, international documents are priority. Therefore according to the ECHR regulation and the Constitution of Romania, article 169 in the Criminal Code sanctioning possession of such documents may not be applied. In Great Britain, prestigious dailies published strictly secret information. They opened lawsuit at ECHR and the Court sentenced the British government, who had to pay 100,00 pound damages. In Romania the press published nothing, but a journalist was arrested. The second issue related to this case is that the home of Sebastian Oancea was searched Saturday evening. According to the Criminal Code Procedure, this may not be proceeded to before the opening of criminal investigations, which did not happen in this case. Therefore investigators proceeded to it without any legal grounds, meaning that the materials picked from Oancea's house may not be used as evidence.

Bogdan GALCA