The kidnapping of the Romanian journalists in Iraq had a certain political purpose and it had a psychological impact on the Romanian people. This is what the High Court of Justice is claiming in the motivation to the decision reached last February, motivation released yesterday. It grounds for the dismissal of Omar Hayssam's appeal against the court verdict sentencing him to 20 years of prison for terrorism. The starting point in the motivation is that there is evidence showing that the abduction was pre-established by a terrorist group with extremist outlooks and attitude, a group pursuing political objectives at a certain moment. Judges describe the motivation released by the Bucharest Court of Appeal as grounded and legal. There is mentioned the high relevant of Mohammad Munaf's testimony, pointing to the guilt of charged Omar Hayssam. There is added that Mohammad Munaf recounted in plenty of details the way the Syrian businessman had plotted to kidnap the Romanian journalists, the way he had financed the affair to take advantage of it. The Supreme Court explains Omar Hayssam's plan as follows: "Omar Hayssam decided that Mohammad Munaf would be his servant and link with the terrorist group in Iraq, he decided on the contracts with the civil parties in order to establish a team of journalists to go to Baghdad and for the beginning he paid $ 30, 000 for the abduction operation." Something to get away with Magistrates argue that, but kidnapping the journalists, Omar Hayssam wanted to get away with the interdiction to leave Romania, set on him because he as under criminal investigations in several economic crime cases. The Court emphasizes: "The attitude that the accused Omar Hayssam had after the journalists had been kidnapped underlines the fact that he did now about this event and he was trying using any means to get his interdiction to leave the country revoked. He said on television and radio that he had been asked for $ 4 million in exchange to the journalists' freedom." (...) Declassification is "useless" As for the refusal to declassify the document classified by the operative group in charge of rescuing the journalists from the terrorists, a group established by the Romanian Presidency, there is argued that the solicitation to declassify the documents at stake is "irrelevant and useless to an aim such as learning the truth", since the information at stake was not used as evidence. In June 13 the Bucharest Court of appeal sentenced Syrian businessman Omar Hayssam to 20 years of prison, the most unrelenting sanction settled in the Criminal Code, for the crimes he was charged with in the journalist kidnap case. Omar Hayssam is also to pay $ 2 million damages to the three Romanian journalists abducted in Baghdad. Right after hearing the sentence, the Syrian said it was o surprise to him, adding that those guilty of the kidnap were actually traveling free in Romania.

Andrei GHICIUSCA