Convicted ex-Romanian PM attempts suicide

Former Romanian Prime Minister Adrian Nastase was sedated in intensive care Thursday following surgery on wounds inflicted after he shot himself in the neck. Police were attempting to escort him to prison to begin a two-year jail term for corruption.Nastase is the most senior politician to be convicted of corruption in Romania since the end of communist rule in 1989, and his case is seen as proof the country is getting tough on graft. Surgeon Ioan Lascar from Bucharest’s main emergency hospital said the bullet had traveled through Nastase’s neck and out the other side, narrowly missing a major artery and hitting his larynx. “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. Nastase appeared to have attempted suicide Wednesday when police arrived at his house, 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 went missing from the state budget in 2004 when profits from an event organized by a state construction watchdog were used to finance his presidential campaign. Nastase, who lost the election to Traian Basescu, denied any wrongdoing in the case that 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 corruption in Romania and neighboring Bulgaria, has led to both being blocked from joining the passport-free Schengen zone.