Mayor Gabriela Firea takes Blogger to Court and Cleaners

An important blogger in an Eastern European country was sued by that country’s [major city] Mayor. We hope he’s appealing, even though he's not so personally.

I am not familiar with the Romanian legislation, but this is chilling. I tried looking him up on Patreon (if he has a link on his blog, it’s blocked by my adblocker) but all I can find is a Turkish blog. Not sure what’s going on.

This mayor is widely disparaged by what to me seems a majority of citizens, and it remains a mystery who voted her in the office. In one of his articles, he writes in cetin-#InFireaEi, explaining why many have to deal with a crumbling infrastructure:

This year, for example, only 2.6 million lei were actually spent on RADET investments [heating / plumbing, seriously lacking]. For comparison, the Cathedral received 45 million lei, and the budget CREART (the institution dealing with festivals, fairs and concerts) was 79 million lei.

Currently, 1 RON is about CAD $ 0.3 or EUR 0.2 or USD $0.23, which is important, because a decision was rendered and it is likely being appealed (08/04/2019?).

The tribunal page states that the decision, rendered 2019-02-25, favors the Mayor, forcing the blogger to pay 20000 moral damages + 1350 costs + 160 tax + 1190 lawyer.

Nr. unic (nr. format vechi) :
30279/3/2018
Data inregistrarii
10.09.2018
Data ultimei modificari:
05.06.2019
Sectie:
Secţia a-IV-a Civilă
Materie:
Civil
Obiect:
actiune in raspundere delictuala
Stadiu procesual:
Fond
Părţi

Nume
Calitate parte
FIREA GABRIELA CU DOM ALES LA AV DOBRE&CIORNEI
Reclamant
CETIN AMETCEA
Pârât
AMETCEA CETIN DANIEL
Pârât
Şedinţe

25.02.2019
Ora estimata: 08:30
Complet: F 14
Tip solutie: Admite in parte cererea
Soluția pe scurt: Admite în parte cererea. Constată caracterul ilicit al difuzării de informații privind viața privată a reclamantei pe site-ul www.cetin.ro. Obligă pârâtul la plata către reclamantă a sumei de 20.000 lei cu titlu de daune morale. Obligă pârâtul la postarea pe site-ul www.cetin.ro, aparținând pârâtului, a dispozitivului prezentei hotărâri, după rămânerea definitivă a acesteia. Obligă pârâtul la plata sumei de 1350 lei cu titlu de cheltuieli de judecată, din care suma de 160 lei cu titlu de taxă judiciară de timbru (proporțional cu capetele de cerere admise) și suma de 1190 lei onorariu avocat. Cu drept de apel în termen de 30 de zile de la comunicare, cererea de apel urmând a se depune la Tribunalul București, sub sancțiunea nulității. Pronunțată azi, 25.02.2019“, este decizia Tribunalului.
Document: Hotarâre 351/2019 25.02.2019

Cetin Ametcea, currently publishing on cetin.ro which used to be arhiblog.ro is an interesting character who started his own quasi-judicial proceedings against another vlogger (this one behind the TV screen). People attacking him often use him as an example on how to lose weight or how to pretend to lose weight. But as far as I know, he doesn’t go around suing his competition or those he disagrees with (although I could be wrong).

Taking someone to court for differing or even insulting opinion is a below-the-belt move for a politician, but this one is unlikely to incur the wrath of her electorate. She had been posing as a victim recently after having found a 4cm long metallic object in her colon, which she claims was placed there by a “criminal hand”. Only days ago, she declared in an interview that she learned about the conviction of her party boss while she was in a church next to a “miracle-making icon” (hn-fior). On the same show she left open the possibility to run as an independent if not chosen by her party (a form of blackmail, really).

Justice in that country often does not really work as one might expect. Recently, the Constitutional Court invalidated an anti-corruption Referendum question which it previously approved, which had been approved by millions of voters, after having cleared numerous other statutory barriers (ccr-comm).

I wish Arhi / Cetin best of luck with his appeal. This is a matter of concerns for all bloggers, especially those in Romania. We requested his comments by email but received no reply by publishing.

Sources / More info: cetin-lawsuit, tribunal-decizie2, tribunal-decizie3, cetin-#infireaei, buget-jud, rol-vict, hn-fior, ccr-comm