Dan Popper: "Nobody can be punished!”

Tuesday, following a meeting of the Executive Committee of the ROC, general secretary Dan Popper said nobody can be held responsible in the case dealing with falsifying documents for gymnasts, because the statute of limitations has expired, according to the law. The ROC official quoted article number 289 in the Criminal Code, which states that intellectual fraud can be punishable with jail sentences ranging from 6 months to 5 years. However, according to paragraph d) of article 122 the statute of limitations on jail sentences between one and five years is 5 years.
"In this case, all the athletic infrastructure is to blame, but we cannot go back in the past. In any case, I am sure nothing like this will ever happen from now on, at least not in Romanian Olympic sports. According to the law, the statute of limitations has expired, so no matter how you look at the problem, there’s basically no one to be held responsible for these facts,” said Popper.
”The Executive Committee members showed their confidence in women’s gymnastics, saying it can get back on track until the Athens Olympiad, where we could win medals. RGF general secretary Adrian Stoica assured us they will meet their goals for the Olympic Games,” added Popper.

ROC President Ion Tiriac took a similar approach, saying that as far as he is concerned, the case is closed. “Starting with the International Gymnastics Federation and going down to all other organizations, this was a common practice in the sports world. Those were things that should not have been allowed to happen. Although these things were predominant in former Communist countries, they took place in plenty of other countries, according to my sources. As long as I’ll be ROC President, these things won’t happen again!”

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