Cristian Panait (March 29, 1973 in

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

– April 10, 2002 in

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...

) was a

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

prosecutor A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the adversarial system, which is adopted in common law, or inquisitorial system, which is adopted in Civil law (legal system), civil law. The prosecution is 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' ...

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 (Nagyvárad). Toponymy ...

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. More broadly, soc ...

. 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 Form ...

'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 December 2000 to December 2004. He competed in the 2004 Romanian presidential elect ...

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, ploy, or scheme, is a secret plan or agreement between people (called conspirers or conspirators) for an unlawful or harmful purpose, such as murder, treason, or corruption, especially with a political motivat ...

surrounded Panait to demonstrate to him that he had

schizophrenia Schizophrenia () is a mental disorder characterized variously by hallucinations (typically, Auditory hallucination#Schizophrenia, hearing voices), delusions, thought disorder, disorganized thinking and behavior, and Reduced affect display, f ...

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 (; ''FAZ''; "Frankfurt General Newspaper") is a German newspaper founded in 1949. It is published daily in Frankfurt and is considered a newspaper of record for Germany. Its Sunday edition is the ''Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung'' ( ...

talks about

Victor Ponta Victor Viorel Ponta (; born 20 September 1972) is a Romanian politician and jurist who served as Prime Minister of Romania from 2012 to 2015. He was president of the Social Democratic Party (Romania), Social Democratic Party (PSD) from 2010 to ...

'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 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