The Slatina Court rejected the candidate supported by AUR for a town hall in Olt because he was criminally convicted for cigarette trafficking

– Advertisement –

The Slatina Court decided, on Monday, to reject the candidacy of Ionuţ Bogdan Iagăru for the Valea Mare City Hall, because he is sentenced with suspension in a case concerning cigarette trafficking. He was an independent candidate for mayor, supported by the AUR party.

The magistrates of the Slatina Court accepted the appeal filed by the Social Democratic Party (PSD).

At the same time, Ionuţ Bogdan Iagăru is also running for the Valea Mare Local Council, appearing in second place on the list of the Party Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR).

“(…) the court notes that by Decision no. 5/27.04.2024 Electoral Office of Circumscription no. 100 Valea Mare admitted the candidacy of the independent candidate Iagăru Ionuţ Bogdan for the position of mayor of Valea Mare commune; however, from the checks carried out, it appears that he is registered in the criminal record with several criminal acts, for which he requested judicial rehabilitation, on the role of the Olt Tribunal, file no. 2955/311/2024, with terms 21.05.2024, having as object “judicial rehabilitation”.

However, in this situation, the court finds that the said Iagăru Ionuţ Bogdan is obviously in the situation provided by art. 6 para. 2 lit. c from Law no. 115/2015 final thesis, on the date of submission of the candidacy, having a final conviction and rehabilitation did not take place”, the decision of the Slatina Court states.

The decision of the Slatina Court is not final, and can be contested within 24 hours.

The candidate supported by AUR, the leader of a cigarette trafficking network

DIICOT prosecutors said in 2015 that 39-year-old Ionuţ Bogdan Iagăru is the leader of a cigarette trafficking group that came from the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine.

DIICOT-BT Olt prosecutors, supported by SCCO Olt police officers, carried out, on that date, several searches in Slatina and Valea Mare commune, the residences of the current AUR candidate and his father being checked. In Slatina, the prosecutors and the police also searched two stands in the “Millenium” Bazaar, in the Crişan area.

Following the searches, both in the bazaar and at the suspects’ residences, a quantity of contraband “Marble” cigarettes was found.

Ionuţ Bogdan Iagăru was not the first offender, being a smuggler with “old states”. In June 2010, he was caught by the policemen of the Economic Investigation Service, within the IPJ Olt, within the radius of the city of Potcoava, while he was driving a car in which he was carrying 32,950 packs of contraband cigarettes, worth approximately 104,350 lei. The cigarettes also came from the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine. On the same occasion, but in Valea Mare, the police stopped another car with contraband cigarettes, driven by Iagăru’s father, Marin Iagăru, 60 years old.

Following this event, Ionuţ Bogdan Iagăru was sentenced, in July 2012, by the magistrates of the Olt Court, to three years of suspended imprisonment. Later, in May 2013, the Craiova Court of Appeal reduced his sentence to one year and two months in prison with suspension so that, in April 2014, the sentence would remain final through the decision of the High Court of Cassation and Justice.

The Iagăru family is known for cigarette smuggling. In May 2011, the father and uncle of Ionuţ Bogdan Iagăru, Marin Iagăru and Ion Iagăru, were detained by the police of the Fraud Investigation Service, within the IPJ Olt, after contraband cigarettes were found at their homes. From the investigations, the police established that they purchased contraband cigarettes, without paying customs duties, which they stored at their homes, from where, later, they sold them, within the Slatina municipality, to various natural and legal persons .