Romania ex-PM in intensive care after suicide attempt

Bucharest: Former Romanian Prime Minister Adrian Nastase was sedated in intensive care on Thursday following surgery on wounds inflicted when he shot himself in the neck after police tried to take him to prison to start a two-year jail term for corruption. Nastase, 61, is the most senior politician to be convicted of corruption in Romania since the end of communist rule in 1989 and his case is often touted as proof the poor European Union member is getting tough on graft. [caption id=“attachment_352991” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“An ambulance carrying Romania’s ex-PM Nastase after he attempted suicide attempt leaves his residence in Bucharest. Reuters”]  [/caption] Surgeon Ioan Lascar from Bucharest’s main emergency hospital said the bullet had travelled through Nastase’s neck and out the other side, narrowly missing a major artery and hitting his larynx without affecting his vocal chords. “He is now sedated, in intensive care,” said Serban Bradisteanu, another of the hospital’s doctors, adding Nastase also suffered from heart disease, hypertension and diabetes. “It is a miracle he didn’t suffer a heart attack.” The former prime minister was expected to remain in hospital for two weeks, doctors said. One of his lawyers told private television station Realitatea TV a request to postpone his detention for up to three months would be filed later on Thursday. Nastase appeared to have attempted suicide on Wednesday when police arrived at his house in an upmarket part of the capital to take him to prison, the general prosecutor’s office said. Local media said he had shot himself with a pistol and was wounded in the neck. A keen hunter and fisherman, Nastase was prime minister in a leftist government from 2000-2004. Prosecutors said $2 million had gone missing from the state budget in 2004 when profits from an event organised by a state construction watchdog were used to finance his presidential campaign. Nastase, who lost the election to Traian Basescu, who is still president, denied any wrongdoing in the case which he said was political. He has retained a senior role in the Social Liberal Union (USL) alliance, which took power last month and looks likely to win a parliamentary election due in November. The failure to tackle endemic corruption in Romania and neighbouring Bulgaria, the EU’s two newest members, has led to both being blocked from joining the passport-free Schengen zone. Reuters