Bucharest General Mayor Nicusor Dan believes that in Romania „in many areas, the state does not exist, the law does not exist, the control institutions do not exist”, the statement being made in the context of the investigation regarding the inhumane treatments applied to some elderly and disabled people in several nursing homes, write Agerpres.

„In many areas the rule of law is being imitated, one is reality and another is the reality in the paperwork behind everyone takes cover. A trivialization of illegality. A complicity with illegality that we see in politicians who legalize illegality, in parts of the press that deliberately ignore the unlawfulness, but also the ordinary people who approve of somebody who stole but also did something,” says Nicusor Dan on Sunday, in a post on his Facebook page.

He deems what happened in the three nursing homes in Ilfov „an attack on human dignity” and considers all those guilty should be punished.

„We were all shaken by the reality of the three nursing homes in Ilfov. An attack on human dignity. Obviously, all those guilty must be punished. Much more important, I think, is that we all become aware, following this tragedy, of the overall picture,” the mayor of the capital also wrote.

He says that the tragedy should trigger in everyone’s consciousness „an awakening from the trivialization of illegality”.

On Tuesday, almost 100 elderly people were rescued by police officers and prosecutors from the Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT), following searches of three asylums in Voluntari, where the elderly, many with disabilities, were beaten, starved and put to forced labor.

According to the investigators, starting from November 2020, in Ilfov county, two organized criminal groups were allegedly established, for the purpose of exploiting people with disabilities or in vulnerable situations, the exploitation of the victims being carried out by subjecting them to inhuman or degrading treatments, by exploiting unpaid work, through coercion and physical violence.

Also, the exploitation would have been carried out by the lack of sufficient and nutritionally adequate food, by the lack or non-administration of medical treatment appropriate to the diagnosis of each beneficiary, by the lack of care and ensuring the hygiene of the beneficiaries who did not have the physical/mental capacity for self-care, at the same time as their care in a state of servitude to the members of organized criminal groups, in order to obtain unjust benefits from the leaders of the groups and from the other members.