Romanian Prime Minister accused of plagiarizing parts of his doctoral thesis

Romanian Prime Minister Nicolae Siuka has faced accusations of plagiarizing parts of his doctoral dissertation just two months after taking office, raising the prospects of the collapse of a government aimed at ending Romania's political turmoil.

Siuka, a retired military general who became the tenth prime minister in 10 years, was accused of copying passages from other research without citing them as references, according to the investigative news website Press One.

And the Bloomberg News Agency quoted the website on Tuesday as saying that the paragraphs represent about a third of the texts of Siuka's doctoral thesis in military sciences, which he obtained in 2003.

The prime minister denied the accusations and asked the National Defense University's ethics committee to verify his work.

The university said it would verify his doctoral thesis.

"As a member of the military, I have always done my duty by respecting the principles, laws and rules required of the Romanian army," Siuka said in a statement. "My doctoral dissertation is based mostly on my personal experience accumulated from assignments abroad."

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