The President of Romania Traian Basescu came out yesterday to release information about the professional career of Liberal Norica Nicolai and ground his refusal to appoint her a minister of Justice. It happened after the PM Calin Popescu Tariceanu had dismissed the President's invitation to dialogue about Norica Nicolai. The President put it straight yesterday: "I will never appoint her a minister of Justice!". He insinuated the PM had another means available: to have the MPs vote for or against her. If they vote for her, the President will have to appoint her a minister by decree. Traian Basescu complained that last Thursday he had kept on trying to get in touch with the PM, but he wouldn't be reached. "This is unacceptable in the rule of law, for it could have been a problem of national security!", the President commented. The head of state argued that, given the PM's stubborn dismissal of dialogue, he had to release publicly some data relevant of the profile of the candidate proposed for the Ministry of Justice. He described Liberal senator Norica Nicolai as "a person not meeting the legal criteria to be appointed a minister of Justice." Robert Cazanciuc, a spokesman for the Public Ministry, confirmed yesterday that in December 20, 2007 the head of state had asked the Prosecutor's Office for the record of Norica Nicolai, a prosecutor in the district of Calarasi in 1983-1991. President Basescu explained last night: "After analyzing Mrs. Nicolai's professional career, as required in the Court's decision, the President wrote a letter to the PM in January 8, demanding him to give up his choice for Mrs. Nicolai. The President grounded his refusal on a fact of public notoriety: the candidate's attempt to cheat on the voting in the Senate of Romania. The President mentioned this was enough to doubt the candidate's unstained reputation and morality. Th President asked the PM to recommend a different person. As reply to this constitutional solicitation, the PM proposed Mr. Nicolai again." Reasons for refusal Presidency explained by press release: "In 1987, Norica Nicolai was a prosecutor in Oltenita, a locality in the district of Calarasi. She was in charge of a criminal case in which an innocent person was convicted and imprisoned. But the police reached the true guilty after the conviction. The guilty person and the innocent one had the same first and last names, but the rest of the personal data differed. Instead of taking action to acquit the innocent and charge the guilty in keeping with the law, Mrs. Nicolai modified the warrant against the innocent person without opening criminal inquiry and a new lawsuit against the guilty. This is how the true criminal was deprived of his right to defense, he was not questioned and got behind bars, because of the warrant modified by Mrs. Macovei. For this deed Mrs. Prosecutor got sanctions after successive reports by inspectors from the local prosecution in Oltenita and the Prosecutor's Office." In the press release there is also mentioned that in 1991, although a prosecutor in the same locality. Mrs. Norica Nicolai broke the law to defend a foreign citizen in a trial concerning the adoption of a child from Bucharest. The trial was held in the trial house in Calarasi. In order to explain her misdeed, Mrs. Nicolai claimed she didn't know the law. On month later, she left magistracy. The head of state also highlighted that the documents grounding the information were available to the PM in the general archive of the Prosecutor's Office. (A.H.)