UPDATE: Romanian PM denies allegations he plagiarized parts of doctoral thesis

Foto: Facebook/ Guvernul României

Romania’s Prime Minister Nicolae Ciucă on Tuesday defended himself against allegations that he plagiarized parts of his doctoral thesis.

Thesis

PressOne claimed Tuesday that 42 pages out of his 138-page thesis were not his own work and had been taken from other sources.

The prime minister, who previously served as the Army chief-of-staff, denied wrongdoing.

He asked the Ethics Committee of the Carol I Defense University that awarded him the doctorate in 2003 to investigate the claims.

President Klaus Iohannis said the prime minister made „the right and necessary decision” to ask for his doctoral thesis to be examined by the university’s Ethics Committee.

The premier insisted that his thesis was “the result of scientific research from years of doctoral study which reflects work that was put in.”

Florin Citu, the former prime minister who heads the Liberal Party the prime minister is a member of, said the matter should „be clarified quickly so it doesn’t become a vulnerability,” he told B1 TV, G4 Media reported.

Plagiarized work

In a statement early Tuesday, Mr. Ciuca, a retired general said the thesis was “carried out in accordance with the existing legal standards of the time.”

PressOne  however claimed some of the allegedly plagiarized work came from other doctoral theses at the university. It said he had also taken content from two books.

It said he changed the order of subjects and rewrote paragraphs to hide the alleged wrongdoing.

“The work was documented in an honest manner and the bibliographic source was mentioned at least in one place,” he said.

Doctorate

Nicolae Ciucă  began studying for his doctorate in 1999 and obtained the title of doctor in military science from the Carol I Defense University.

His thesis was ”The dimension of the commitment of the Romanian Army in multinational operations.”

He took part in two international missions while preparing his doctorate, according to his CV, in the West Balkans and Afghanistan.

His actual thesis is 147 pages long and 162 page are annexes.

Responsibility

”I assure you that in all my career as an officer of the Romanian Army, I have assumed responsibility, regardless of the position I’ve held. I won’t give up this principle even in my career as a politician.”

Eight years after allegations surfaced, a court ruled that former Prime Minister Victor Ponta had plagiarized much of his doctoral dissertation.

In recent years, a number of ministers, police chiefs and even senior cleric have been accused of plagiarism or enabling plagiarism.

Romanian researchers call for Elena Ceaușescu’s fraudulent scientific work to be erased from books-the Guardian

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