Romanian Intelligence Service
| Serviciul Român de Informații | |
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| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | March 26, 1990 |
| Preceding agency | |
| Headquarters | Bd. Libertății nr. 14D, sector 5, Bucharest |
| Employees | Classified (reported as between 3000-12000) |
| Annual budget | RON 1.39 billion / EUR 314 million (2014) |
| Agency executives |
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| Website | www.sri.ro |
The Romanian Intelligence Service (Romanian: Serviciul Român de Informații, abbreviated SRI) is Romania's main domestic intelligence service. Its role is to gather information relevant to national security and hand it over to relevant institutions, such as Romanian Government, presidency and law enforcement departments and agencies. The service is gathering intelligence by ways such as signals intelligence (SIGINT), open source intelligence (OSINT) and human intelligence (HUMINT).
Several commentators have labelled the SRI “Securitate Version 2.0”, expressing concern that “Under the pretext of corruption, the SRI has extended its influence to such an extent that independence and the rule of law no longer seem to be guaranteed.”
In January 2017, the President of the Romanian Senate, Calin Popescu Tariceanu, alleged that the SRI had contributed to Romania’s transformation into a “mafia state”.
The SRI is forbidden by law to intervene in courts and prosecutions. However, the covert role of the SRI in directing anti-corruption prosecutions has become a growing problem. The SRI carries out 20,000 telephone intercepts on behalf of Romania’s National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) every year and initiates DNA investigations.
In April 2015, senior SRI General Dumitru Dumbrava revealed that his agency regarded the legal system as a “tactical field’ of operations:
“Specifically, if a few years ago we believed that we achieved our goal once the DNA was notified, for example, if we subsequently withdrew from the tactical field once the court was notified by the indictment, appreciating (naively as we can say now) that our mission had been completed, we now maintain our interest until the final settlement of each case.”
Laura Kovesi, the Chief Prosecutor for the DNA, confirmed in September 2015 that 24 DNA cases that year had been opened on referral from the SRI.
It was alleged in December 2016 that “Kovesi works hand in glove with the SRI, to entrap targets and obtain evidence against them. In some cases the SRI brings a case to the agency, in other cases the agency brings in the SRI to support its case with wiretapping of targets.”
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Wikipedia