MFA Spokesman's follow-up comments to those made on 1 April 2010

"Following the MFA Spokesman's comment on 1 April 2010 that the Chargé d'Affaires ad interim of the Romanian Embassy in Singapore, Mr Alex Coseru, had left behind the two document folders and eight volumes of photographs which were given to him during the Coroner's Inquiry, Mr Coseru told MFA on 2 April that he had done so because he did not know that they were for his retention.

In response to this claim by Mr Coseru, MFA has today provided him with another full set of the same documents and photographs. In doing so, MFA made clear to Mr Coseru that as he is the Romanian government's official representative in Singapore, these were given to him for his government's use and this was why he had been given the documents during the Coroner's Inquiry in the first place.

The MFA Spokesman pointed out that as he had said in his comments on 1 April, on the last day of the Coroner's Inquiry Mr Coseru had asked the State Counsel for a copy of the Investigation Report. This had been given to Mr Coseru who took it away with him at that time without any misunderstanding.

The MFA Spokesman also noted that the media had reported that the Romanian MFA had disavowed the allegations made by Dr Silviu Ionescu about the Coroner's Inquiry and Singapore's judicial system and had clarified that they did not represent the position of the Romanian authorities.

The MFA Spokesman reiterated that Singapore expected the full cooperation of the Romanian authorities to ensure that justice would be served and that to this end Singapore would cooperate to the fullest extent possible under our law with the Romanian authorities.

In response to a media question, the MFA Spokesman added that Mr Aurelian Neagu the Romanian Ambassador to Singapore (who is resident in Tokyo) had not yet provided a firm date for his visit to Singapore to discuss the case, but that MFA expected to hear from him shortly."

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MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
SINGAPORE
5 APRIL 2010