Romanian Secret Service Quizzed Over Pharma Boss’s Death

Romania’s parliament on Monday asked the Intelligence Service, SRI, to inform the parliamentary committee that supervises its activity whether it had any role in the sudden death of controversial pharma boss Dan Condrea who died in a car crash on Sunday.

“We have asked for an official report following the public requests of two of our colleagues,” Georgian Pop, head of the parliamentary committee that supervises the SRI, said.

Since Condrea’s death in the crash on Sunday, a number of Romanian officials have asked for an SRI report on the accident.

“This scandal has national security connotations, and if the SRI has any information about the circumstances of the event, I won’t call it an accident,” said Marius Octavian Popa, member of the parliamentary committee that supervises the SRI, said.

One of the voices embracing a conspiracy theory about the possible involvement of the SRI in the death belongs to former Prime Minister Victor Ponta.

“This is really shocking! What is happening in our country!? How is this possible!? Who has the power to do that!? What did this man do and who feared what he knew!? Unfortunately, Romania in 2016 means fear, suspicion and unseen forces that actually control our lives!” an excitable Ponta posted on Facebook on Monday.

Hexi Pharma, the company that Condrea owned, is the centre of the crisis over the inefficient disinfectants it sold to hundreds of Romanian hospitals.

A criminal investigation into the purchase of the allegedly substandard disinfectants has been launched.

Condrea, 39, died on Sunday evening, after his car crashed into a tree on a road near Bucharest.

Police say every hypothesis remains open, including suicide, as no break marks were found at the accident site. Thats suggests he may have deliberately driven into the tree.

Since the scandal over the use of substandard disinfectants in hospitals broke, the SRI has been pressured to explain why it did not notify the authorities about this security problem.

The SRI has replied that it submitted four classified documents about the firm Hexi Pharma to decision-makers between 2011 and 2016.

May now say that all classified information about Condrea and his affairs now must be released into the public domain.

“I do believe the declassification of those [intelligence] documents would be good for all of us – both for those who sent them and for those who received them,” Liviu Dragnea, president of the Social Democratic Party, said on Monday.

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