MPs want probe into Dracula’s Castle return

The parliamentary sub-commission which investigates the return of Bran Castle found that several illegalities were perpetrated in connection with the return and the initiation of the procedure for putting up for sale the Castle and proposes to notify Premier, the Constitutional Court and the Prosecutor’s Office in this case.

These conclusions were presented in the report of the investigation sub-commission, submitted on Wednesday with the Standing Bureau of the Chamber of Deputies. The report reads that the legal and constitutional provisions connected with properties were ignored in the return of Bran Castle, and the procedural rules connected with the succession were violated, therefore the documents connected with the return of Bran Castle are absolutely null.

The main illegalities mentioned in the report refer to the fact that the return of Bran Castle was not made by the empowered persons. The restitution was made from the public domain of the state, without shifting it from the public domain into the private domain of the state, as stipulated by Constitution. The investigation sub-commission considers that the empowered authorities proved “an unjustified haste” in drafting the restitution documents, without the consultation of the specialists in this domain. “Guilty in this case are the representatives of the Ministry of Culture, the National Authority for the restitution of properties, and Bran Castle,” reads the report which adds that the representatives of Brasov County Council are guilty of the creation of the false idea that the Romanian state will recover the castle “at an exorbitant price.”

Bran Castle was returned in May 2006 to Dominic Habsburg. The restitution document was signed by the director of Bran Museum, Narcis Dorin Ion. The Minister of Culture and Religious Denominations, Adrian Iorgulescu, and Dominic Habsburg signed an agreement regarding the administration of the castle, which stipulates that the latter remains a museum for three years.
by Nine oClock