Romania’s High Council Of Magistrates Checks Tapping In Hayssam Case

Sentenced by a Bucharest court to 20 years in jail for the kidnapping of three Romanian journalists in 2005 in Iraq, Hayssam fled the country.

 

Several tapped phone calls between Hayssam and the prosecutor who investigated him, Ciprian Nastasiu, were declassified and used in the trial of Mustafa Tartoussi, who allegedly helped Hayssam leave the country aboard his ship. The tappings, authorized by the Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI) are dated August 14 august – September 18, 2006.

 

MEDIAFAX news agency on Tuesday made public the transcripts of the intercepted calls, where Hayssam boasted about how he left the country “like a gentleman, his head held high, dressed to the nines, with a fake passport and a new look”. Hayssam suggests he fled Romania by plane, and not by ship.