The Ministry of Culture requested the Prosecutor General’s Office to constitute an investigation group specialized in crimes that refer to the destruction of historic monuments after the Agency for Monument Inspection and Restoration published a progress report following reports about illegal demolition of buildings that are historic monuments, IPN reports.

The Ministry of Culture said that there were ascertained a number of cases of demolition of historic monuments and building of new edifices, primarily during the period prior to the creation of the new Ministry of Culture. Requisitions were submitted to the PGO based on the documents referring to these serious violations.

Based on the Agency for Monument Inspection and Restoration’s report, the Ministry of Culture called on acting prosecutor general Ion Munteanu to turn his attention to this case and to initiate criminal cases on the demolition of monuments.

“The destruction of the heritage in most of the cases is an organized effort by criminal groups whose goal is to demolish monuments and to later erect multi-story buildings in that place. These illegal activities include falsification of documents, design projects with deviations from the building norms, issuing of illegal building permits and attempts to construct new buildings in the place of the destroyed monuments on the pretext of reconstruction,” the Ministry said in a press rerelease.

The Ministry of Culture considers it is necessary to harshen liability for the destruction of animals by making relevant amendments to the Penal Code and the Contravention Code.