You may even get away with disclaimer.
The Culture House of the Trade Unions in Sepsiszentgyörgy burned down due to a fire started by a 14-year-old boy. The minor was staying with two other people - a 14-year-old boy and a 21-year-old girl - last October in the building colloquially known as the Palace of Culture, where the suspect lit a fire, and when the flames broke out, all three fled the scene, the Sepsiszentgyörgy prosecutor's office said.
According to the prosecutor's office, the investigators managed to identify the arsonist in the person of a 14-year-old boy, who is being prosecuted for vandalism, which is punishable by 2 to 7 years in prison, reports Covasnamedia.ro.
According to the prosecutor's office, taking into account that the suspect is a minor, he can avoid prison and the judge can order educational measures against him if he is found guilty.
On the night of October 28 last year, a huge fire destroyed the Culture House of the Trade Unions in Sepsiszentgyörgy. The great hall was completely burned down, more than a third of the four thousand square meter property was destroyed by the fire. The firefighters, who came out with great strength, managed to put out the flames after about five hours of struggle. Fortunately, no one was injured during the incident, but the financial loss is significant.
Firefighters found a 63-year-old homeless man in the building, so suspicion was first directed at him.
As the electricity and gas supply to the cultural palace building had been terminated years earlier and there was no question of a lightning strike, the only reasonable explanation is that someone set fire to the building and the furniture caught fire. Afterwards, during the investigation, it was possible to identify the perpetrator in the person of a 14-year-old boy, who fled the scene together with his companions.
If it is not possible to clarify the ownership of the cultural palace in Sepsiszentgyörgy in the near future, another disaster could occur at any time, the prefect of Kovászna county drew attention.
According to István Ráduly, clarifying the ownership of the trade unions' cultural center cannot be delayed. After the fire, the prefect called on the police and the gendarmerie to patrol more frequently around the Palace of Culture and to guard state property.
At the end of last year, the Sepsiszentgyörgy municipality launched a petition to acquire the ownership of the cultural palace. Mayor Árpád Antal drew attention to the fact that although the building is on the city's territory, this does not mean that it is the responsibility of the municipality to take care of it. The cultural palace is not owned by the city, they cannot spend money on it, cannot guard it, or even enter it.
According to Árpád Antal, the purpose of the online signature collection is for the town hall to receive authorization from the residents to continue fighting with "various state authorities, the trade union mafia, the judiciary" for the ownership of the building.
The mayor recalled the "struggle" so far: a government draft on the transfer of the property was drawn up in 2014, but it was not approved by the Ministry of Justice, claiming that the trade union had to agree, which the latter did not do. Then, in 2018, the National Association of Cities with County Rights appealed to the government, asking it to sort out the situation of trade union cultural centers in the country
Then they were faced with the fact that there are 57 such buildings in the country, but in four different ownership situations, so it is impossible to solve the problem with a single decree.
Then, in 2020, the case was brought before the government coalition. It turned out that the cultural palace in Sepsiszentgyörgy is not even included in the inventory list of the Ministry of Finance. The local government registered this in the inventory of the Ministry of Finance in 2021.
"It doesn't take much evidence that the union is not a good owner of the building, based on this the state could have revoked its right of use, but this time the Ministry of Justice referred to the fact that it cannot do this until the ongoing ownership lawsuit is concluded," he detailed. the Sisyphus process by Árpád Antal, who reminded that the municipality also filed a criminal complaint in 2021.
Cover image: Sepsiszentgyörgy Palace of Culture after the fire
Source: szekelyhon.ro/Bodor Tünde
