Radio România Internațional

Tag: fugitive

  • July 11, 2024

    July 11, 2024

    AGREEMENT Romania will today sign a bilateral security agreement with Ukraine, Romanian president Klaus Iohannis announced in Washington on Wednesday night on the sidelines of the NATO summit marking 75 years since the alliance was founded. The Romanian official pleaded for stepped up assistance to Kyiv in the war against Russia. Five allied presidents and premiers, including Iohannis signed a joint statement on strengthening the air defence of that country. The participants in the present summit are expected to agree to step up support for other vulnerable partners affected by the war and by Russia’s aggressive behavior. One of these is the Republic of Moldova. New means of deterrence and defence for the allies, stepping up investment in the defensive sector, as well as intensified cooperation with partners from Asia-Pacific, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea are also high on the summit’s agenda.

     

    MATCH Romanian’s Cup holder, second leaguer Corvinul Hunedoara is today taking on the Hungarian side Paksi FC in an away game counting towards the first preliminary round of the Europa League. The decisive round has been scheduled in Romania on July 18th. Corvinul has come back to European Cups after 41 years. In UEFA Cup 1982-1983 they managed to defeat Grazer AK of Austria but were knocked out in the second round by FK Sarajevo of the former Yugoslavia. We recall that on Tuesday, Romania’s champions FCSB clinched a 7-1 away win against Virtus of San Marino in the first qualifying round of the Champions League. The return game is due in Bucharest next week.

     

    TALKS Romania’s constitutional court is today holding talks on a notification by the Higher Court of Cassation and Justice concerning the so-called ‘law of the fugitives’, which says that indicted people who refuse to show up at police stations within seven days will be considered fugitives and can serve up to 3 years in prison sentences. In the opinion of the High Court, the law would infringe upon the right to a fair trial and on individual liberties. The former leftist mayor of Bucharest Sorin Oprescu, the former chief of Romania’s anti-mafia department DIICOT, Alina Bica, the son of the head of the Professional Football League, Mario Iorgulescu, or the grandson of Romania’s king, Carol ll are on the list of Romania’s most wanted fugitives. The fugitives’ countries of choice are Italy and Greece.

     

    FOOTBALL England’s national eleven has qualified for the finals of the European Football Championship EURO 2024 hosted by Germany after a 2-1 win against the Netherlands in the semis on Wednesday night. England will be up against Spain, which comes after a 2-1 win against the selection of France. We recall that Romania was knocked out in the last-16 by the Netherlands, which obtained a clear 3-0 win. Romania qualified for the last 16 after topping the group with a 3-0 win against Ukraine, a 2-0 defeat against Belgium and a one-all draw against Slovakia. Romania hadn’t made it to the eliminatory rounds of a continental or world tournament since the year 2000, neither had our footballers topped a group before EURO 2024.

     

    WEATHER And now a couple of things about the weather, which is extremely hot in Romania with a code orange alert that has been extended for the entire southern territory and whose inhabitants are bracing up for higher heat-stress indexes. The highs of the day are ranging between 36 and 39 degrees Celsius. The noon reading in Bucharest was 34 degrees. The heat wave, which has recently hit Romania, is going to intensify in the following days. A red-code warning has been issued for half of the country starting Saturday, with temperatures between 37 and 41 degrees Celsius. Meteorologists have cautioned that although the alert expires on Monday, Romania will remain in the grip of extremely hot weather.

    (bill)

  • Cooperation in the field of justice

    Cooperation in the field of justice

     

    The former mayor of Baia Mare, in northern Romania, Cătălin Cherecheş, will be brought to the country to serve his 5-year prison sentence for bribery. He fled Romania on November 24, 2023, as soon as the Court announced its ruling, but was caught by the German police 4 days later in Augsburg Station in Germany. Cherecheş opposed extradition due to the bad state of Romanian prisons. In the German Court, however, the Romanian prosecutors explained that the Romanian penitentiary system meets all the requirements of the European Court of Human Rights, and the German magistrates agreed with them. The Romanian Minister of Justice, Alina Gorghiu, said that the decision of the German Court is one more proof that the level of judicial cooperation with Germany, on criminal matters, is very good.

     

    Alina Gorghiu: “Cătălin Cherecheș will remain in custody until taken over by the Romanian authorities. The term is 10 days since the ruling delivered by the Court in Germany, which means that the fugitive will be in a Romanian prison by the end of this month. The Public Prosecutor’s Office in Munich informed us that the Court ruling can be appealed, but the procedure of handing over Cătălin Cherecheș to the Romanian authorities, is not affected in any way.”

     

    Cătălin Cherecheş is just one name from a long list of people who have tried to avoid prison sentences in Romania, a list that includes, among others, the former mayor of Bucharest, Sorin Oprescu, the former head of the Directorate for the Investigation of Organized Crime and Terrorism, Alina Bica, and the grandson of King Carol II, Paul Lambrino.

     

    In this context, the Romanian Justice Minister signed in Rome a joint statement with her Italian counterpart, Carlo Nordio, with a view to a closer judicial cooperation in criminal matters, in order to bring back to the country the convicted persons who try to avoid serving their sentence. She also said that, in 2023, the Romanian state brought home 120 fugitives  from Italy, and another 2 since the beginning of this year, although around 15% to 20% percent of the total extradition requests made by Romania continue to be rejected by the Italian courts.

     

    At the same time, Gorghiu pointed out that she initiated two important laws in this field, namely, the “Fugitives Law”, by which  convicted people, who do not report to the Police within 7 days to be incarcerated, will be considered escaped and risk a punishment between 6 months and 3 years, but also a law by which fugitives will pay the expenses incurred by the procedure of bringing them back to the country. The minister specified that, last year, Romania repatriated 803 fugitives and paid over 2 million euros for these procedures. (EE)