Ion Iliescu to be heard in Costea case

French judges investigating Costea case yesterday asked Romanian authorities to set up a new commission to hear PDSR leader Ion Iliescu and the former treasurer of his electoral campaign, Gheorghe Pascu. Hearings will focus on the illegal financing of PDSR's electoral campaign in 1992 and 1996 by Costea's companies, the General Prosecutor's Office announced yesterday.

The new enquiry was requested by the High Instance Tribunal in Paris, which investigates the penal file on Adrian Costea and his associates, Valentina Costea and Monique Holtman, following information gathered in May by the first commission in Bucharest. French judges are trying to establish whether the commercial companies Adrian Costea managed in France posted high expenses for the benefit of Ion Iliescu during the presidentials that took place in 1992 and 1996.

Romanian prosecutors decided to conduct a separate enquiry on the ten trucks carrying over 30 million pictures, calendars and posters with Ion Iliescu and the PDSR logo, which entered the country illegally. The materials were edited by Groupe Saintonge Edition (GSE) set up by Costea but represented by the French citizen Monique Holtman. Prosecutors arrested Mihai atefan, former deputy manager of the Customs Control and Surveillance Department within the General Customs Department. atefan is charged with issuing an order to destroy all customs documents on the introduction of electoral materials in the country.

Ion Iliescu maintains he was not involved in the illegal transport of posters, as he did not sign any contract in this sense, and that the materials were a sponsorship from Costea.