Deputy Daniel Gheorghe Rusu, elected on AUR lists and currently not a party member, was finally sentenced on Monday by the High Court of Cassation and Justice to pay a criminal fine of 40,000 lei for the crime of endangering the interests of justice, after publishing information in Facebook for criminal investigation.

Alba MP Daniel Gheorghe Rusu was sent to court by the General Prosecutor’s Office in early 2022 for the crime of endangering the interests of justice: “Unauthorized disclosure of evidence or official documents of a criminal case before ordering the case to be opened”. failure to refer the case to the court or the final resolution of the case by an official who became aware of it by virtue of his position shall be punished by imprisonment from one month to one year or a fine.”

According to local media, the actions of which Daniel Gheorghe Rusa is accused took place in September 2020, when he was the mayor of the commune of Spring in the county of Alba and was running for a new mayoral mandate.

On September 25, 2020, Daniel Gheorghe Rusu went “live” on his Facebook account, where he presented a resolution from the prosecutor’s file attached to the Sebesha District Court, addressed to the city hall of the city of Spring, in which the names of some persons who were the subject of checks by the authorities criminal investigation, writes Agerpres.

The prosecutors explained that by making public this resolution, Daniel Rus could put the persons involved in the criminal proceedings in custody.

Daniel Rusu admitted the publication of the prosecutor’s document was negligent, but claimed he wanted to apologize to voters after he was accused during the election campaign of inciting Moldovan citizens to vote for him.

“I was accused of bringing 80 Moldovans to Spring commune to vote for me. A commission was created, and it turned out that this was not the case. Until the case was closed, I did not present this report of the prosecutor’s office on Facebook, on the last day of the election campaign. Through this page, I apologized to the citizens. He risked losing the trust of his friends. Everyone called me. I did not know that the case was not closed yet. They believed that I was not allowed to show that paper.(…) I am saying that this is a political dossier, it is not about corruption or anything else. It didn’t do any harm. Nothing happened, that is, the Moldovans fled and did not come to vote again. I trust justice, and I don’t think it will go so far as to get a conviction,” Daniel Rusu told the local press.

In the end, Daniel Rusu lost the election for a new term of the mayor, but managed to be elected deputy on the lists of AUR. He left the AUR in May, and is now a non-factional deputy.