Orest Onofrei (born 17 March 1957 in Marginea, Suceava County,

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

) is a

n veterinarian and politician. A member of the Democratic Liberal Party (PDL), he represented Suceava County in the Chamber of Deputies from December 2004 to February 2005, and has been a Senator for the same county since December 2008.

Political career

In January 2005, he was named

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 ...

of Suceava County. In April 2008, he was dismissed from his job of prefect and named subprefect of the same county. Meanwhile, in November 2004 he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies as a member of the National Liberal Party (PNL), serving until his resignation early the following year. In August 2008, he resigned and decided to run in the 2008 election on a PDL ticket, winning a Senate seat in a Suceava County district. He was nominated in 2009 to be part of the second

Emil Boc Emil Boc (; born 6 September 1966) is a Romanian politician who was Prime Minister of Romania from 22 December 2008 until 6 February 2012 and is the current Mayor of Cluj-Napoca, the largest city of Transylvania, where he was first elected in Ju ...

Cabinet, but soon after, he gave up to this office after the press began talking about the car accident in which he was involved. Onofrei explained his decision by saying he did not want to put the President or the Prime-Minister in a difficult situation.

Car accident

In June 2002, while driving above the legal

speed limit Speed limits on road traffic, as used in most countries, set the legal maximum speed at which vehicles may travel on a given stretch of road. Speed limits are generally indicated on a traffic sign reflecting the maximum permitted speed - expre ...

through Cleja village,

Bacău County Bacău County () is a county ( județ) of Romania, in Western Moldavia, with its capital city at Bacău. It has one commune, Ghimeș-Făget, in Transylvania. Geography This county has a total area of . In the western part of the county the ...

, he hit and killed an 8-year old child, Paul Hădărag. In 2006, he was sentenced to a suspended prison term of one year."Prefectul, un an de inchisoare cu suspendare"
''Evenimentul Zilei'', 23 February 2006 He appealed and the sentence was overturned in 2007."EXCLUSIV: Orest Onofrei, desemnat pentru portofoliul Agriculturii, vrea să renunţe la funcţie"
''Mediafax'', 19 December 2009

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Onofrei, Orest Members of the Senate of Romania Members of the Chamber of Deputies (Romania) Prefects of Romania Christian Democratic National Peasants' Party politicians National Liberal Party (Romania) politicians Democratic Liberal Party (Romania) politicians People from Suceava County Romanian veterinarians 1957 births Living people