Will Sevil Shhaideh bring down Liviu Dragnea?
Sevil Shhaideh, the Romanian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Regional Development appointed by the ruling Social Democratic Party (PSD) was sent to court by the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) on September 22nd on charges of abuse of power for granting public lands to a private company. Despite sounding rather tame, this case could singlehandedly bring down the feared head of the PSD and eminence grise, Liviu Dragnea.
Shhaideh and Liviu Dragnea go many a ways back: he was a witness at her marriage with Akram Shhaideh — a Syrian citizen with ties to the Bashar al-Assad regime, who is currently a counselor at the Romanian Ministry of Agriculture. According to Dragnea’s declarations, Sevil has worked with him for “13, 14 years at various local authorities and on legal initiatives”, and “is a person whom I trust a lot. In fact, she was the only person within PSD whom I trusted to put in practice this party platform for which I bear the maximum responsibility”. This unique relation of trust was revealed in December 2016, when Dragnea proposed Shhaideh as the Romanian Prime-Minister. She would have been the first woman and the first Muslim to have held this role in the history of the country. This proposal was declined by the President Klaus Iohannis due to Shhaideh’s husband’s affiliations with the Damascus regime, but Dragnea did eventually succeeded in placing his protégé in charge of a ministry he himself had led between 2012–2015.
It’s precisely the relationship between Dragnea and Shhaideh that’s most explosive in the Belina case in which Shhaideh is being investigated. While working as a state secretary at the Ministry for Regional Development and Public Development (MDRAP) under Liviu Dragnea, Sevil allegedly granted around 300 hectares of public land consisting of the Belina Island and the Pavel arm of the Danube to private companies that have been tied to Dragnea and his son. It also doesn’t help that Belina is seen as “Dragnea’s island”.
Locals say as much, as do the PSD’s chief’s photographs with former Prime Minister Grindeanu while catching luce on the island (filmed here). By comparison, the PSD doesn’t find it too worrying that the trajectory of two natural lands’ property rights is as meandering as the Danube. Before 2013, they belonged to the state, but under Sevil Shaideh as state secretary at the MDRAP, they were illegally transferred to the Teleorman County Council, then to Teldrum — owned by Dragnea’s high school colleagues -, Trident 51 — a company currently controlled by Liviu Dragnea’s son — and Teldrum again (after the February 2017 street protests).
Twisting the law’s arm
According to the press release issued by the DNA, Shhaideh and several other high public officials used their positions to cover up this transfer of property. Because the two lands were situated in the lower bank of the Danube (a protected area), they could only be handed over to another public or private institution by changing the law. In order to sidestep the democratic process, 2 Governmental decisions, whose content and adoption process were wholly and officially backed by Shhaideh, were passed. They eliminated Belina Island and the Pavel Branch from the Danube’s map of tributaries, and passed these territories over to the Teleorman County Council, thus breaking provisions in the Constitution, the Water Law 107/1996, the Law regarding public goods 213/1998, Emergency Decree 107/2002 regarding the founding of the National Administration “Romanian Waters”, Law 115/1999 of ministerial responsibility, and Law 24/2000 regarding technical legislative norms. Finally, to disguise ties between Belina and Teldrum (Teldrum had had an active agreement of cession for Belina since 2011) and to facilitate the adoption of the aforementioned government decrees, changes were made to the two territories’ Land Registry, also breaking the Civil Code on top of the other six laws.
Scared that his favourite fishing spot might cause his downfall, Dragnea and his acolytes are at war. Shhaideh and Rovana Plumb (the former Minister of the the Environment and Climate Change, and current PSD MP, whom the DNA is also trying to prosecute), are keeping their jobs and are being depicted as innocent professionals atttacked by prosecutors in bad faith. The Minister of Justice, Tudorel Toader, is saying that the DNA did not have the right to investigate the Belina case. Meanwhile, Dragnea is raging hysterically that if the DNA continues to be given free reign in its pursuit of corruption cases, “[W]e’ll wake up one day with the DNA at the helm of the government. I am a target, the PSD is a target, Tariceanu is a target, the Government is a target. The Parliament as well. This is what I want to tell everyone in the Parliament: we’re not going to back down. Despite all the pressure. The Justice Laws will be brought to Parliament, they will be debated and adopted after serious consultations.”
If only serious consultations had been held in the Parliament before turning 300 hectares of natural reserve into a politician’s playground. If it had been anyone else, especially a foreigner or a corporation, it would’ve been a tragedy. This being the PSD, it’s just a matter of course.
