Paedophile Police Case Exposes Tensions in Romania's Govt

The arrest of a traffic policeman suspected of sexually assaulting two children last weekend has shaken Romania's police force and added to tensions in the centre-left government.

The suspect was arrested on Monday after police circulated a still from a surveillance video of a man sexually assaulting two minors, a boy aged nine and a girl aged five, in an elevator last Friday.

Besides sparking outrage among Romanians, worried about the ethics of their police force, the case has caused skirmishes in the Social Democrat-led cabinet as well as in the ruling party, with Prime Minister Mihai Tudose opposing measures taken by Interior Minister Carmen Dan. 

Police said DNA tests showed that the same man was a suspect in another assault case in 2012 involving a seven-year-old girl, and might have been involved in several other sexual assault cases going back to 2009, which are also being reinvestigated.

He was recognized by co-workers and his immediate superior turned him.

The suspect had worked in the traffic brigade since 2010 and had been a gendarme before that for 20 years.

Interior Minister Carmen Dan on Tuesday asked for the resignation of several police officials, including the national police chief, Bogdan Despescu.

However, Prime Minister Mihai Tudose on Wednesday told the cabinet that he was unwilling to fire Despescu - and praised the police for catching the suspect in only two days.

"I gave the police chief a week to come back with a list of measures that he took to clarify the situation," Tudose told the cabinet meeting.

The Interior Ministry issued a statement on Monday saying that the police service needed reform and reorganization, and that any chiefs deemed responsible for hiding problems would be...