Cristian Panait (March 29, 1973 in

Târgoviște Târgoviște (, alternatively spelled ''Tîrgoviște''; german: Tergowisch) is a city and county seat in Dâmbovița County, Romania. It is situated north-west of Bucharest, on the right bank of the Ialomița River. Târgoviște was one of the ...

– April 10, 2002 in

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...

) was a

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

prosecutor A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the common law adversarial system or the Civil law (legal system), civil law inquisitorial system. The prosecution is the legal party responsible for presenting the ...

for criminal investigation at the Supreme Court of Justice who, on April 10, 2002, committed suicide after reportedly coming under pressure to prosecute another justice official, Alexandru Lele.

Suicide

In the spring of 2002, Cristian Panait was pressured by his superiors to investigate a colleague who had prosecuted the son of a former

prefect Prefect (from the Latin ''praefectus'', substantive adjectival form of ''praeficere'': "put in front", meaning in charge) is a magisterial title of varying definition, but essentially refers to the leader of an administrative area. A prefect's ...

Bihor County Bihor County () is a county ( județ) in western Romania. With a total area of , Bihor is Romania's 6th largest county geographically and the main county in the historical region of Crișana. Its capital city is Oradea. Toponymy The origin of ...

for petrol

smuggling Smuggling is the illegal transportation of objects, substances, information or people, such as out of a house or buildings, into a prison, or across an international border, in violation of applicable laws or other regulations. There are various ...

. He was sent to penalize the prosecutor Alexandru Lele over his courage to order the arrest of the son of Bihor County prefect, Adrian Tarau, one of ruling Romanian party

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties For ...

's main sponsors. Alexandru Lele affirmed the then-Prime Minister

Adrian Năstase Adrian Năstase (; born 22 June 1950) is a Romanian jurist, academic/professor, blogger, and former politician who served as the Prime Minister of Romania from October 2000 to December 2004. He competed in the 2004 presidential election as th ...

was "trampling criminal investigations under foot." Several Romanian newspapers claimed that political interference at a high level was influencing seniors in the prosecution office to force Panait to make the investigation. Panait refused to submit to such demands and his superiors took the case away from him. Despite this, Panait wrote a non-indictment decision on his colleague and turned it into the office. His superiors then took away all his cases. Arguably, a large

conspiracy A conspiracy, also known as a plot, is a secret plan or agreement between persons (called conspirers or conspirators) for an unlawful or harmful purpose, such as murder or treason, especially with political motivation, while keeping their agree ...

surrounded Panait to demonstrate to him that he had

schizophrenia Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by continuous or relapsing episodes of psychosis. Major symptoms include hallucinations (typically hearing voices), delusions, and disorganized thinking. Other symptoms include social withdra ...

and on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Nevertheless, Alexandru Lele stated that the Supreme Court of Justice had the Prosecutor General's Office should take into account "the likelihood of prosecutor Cristian Panait's being killed". He said, "I am sure that political pressure was put on Panait regarding at least two of the cases he was in charge of - my case and that of deputy Gheorghiu, but I do not think investigators took into account this possibility". An article from

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung The ''Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung'' (; ''FAZ''; "''Frankfurt General Newspaper''") is a centre-right conservative-liberal and liberal-conservativeHans Magnus Enzensberger: Alter Wein in neuen Schläuchen' (in German). ''Deutschland Radio'', ...

talks about

Victor Ponta Victor Viorel Ponta (; born 20 September 1972) is a Romanian jurist and politician, who served as Prime Minister of Romania between his appointment by President Traian Băsescu in May 2012 and his resignation in November 2015. A former member of ...

's involvement in the seemingly accidental death of Panait, who apparently suffered a lethal accident soon after meeting with Ponta.

Monica Macovei Monica Luisa Macovei (; born 4 February 1959) is a Romanian politician, lawyer and former prosecutor, and former Member of the European Parliament from the European Conservatives and Reformists and formerly a member of the Romanian Democratic L ...

, who served as Justice Minister between 2004 and 2007, stated that she was skeptical about the correctness of the investigation into Cristian Panait's death.

Movie adaptation

The case received major mainstream attention after the announcement made by

Tudor Giurgiu Tudor Giurgiu (born 1972 in Cluj-Napoca, Romania) is a Romanian film director. He was President of Romanian National Television, TVR between 2005 and 2007. Tudor Giurgiu is also a director of music videos and has made documentaries. Giurgiu owns ...

that he will direct a fictionalized film adaptation based on the story. The film was released in 2015 as '' Why Me?''.

Notes

External links

Young prosecutor said to have jumped to death under pressure in a probe

Post-mortem psychological expertise application on prosecutor Panait fiercely contested

Death of prosecutor Panait reinvestigated
{{DEFAULTSORT:Panait, Cristian 2002 deaths Romanian prosecutors Suicides in Romania 1973 births People from Târgoviște