Paul de Romania, in custody until May 9. Gorghiu: I have never had a fugitive teaching from Malta. I will talk to the Minister of Justice

The Minister of Justice, Alina Gorghiu, declared on Tuesday that the fugitive Paul de Romania was remanded in custody until May 9, in Malta, and the request of his lawyers to be released on bail was rejected. “I will also try a dialogue at the level of Minister of Justice, with my counterpart from Malta,” Gorghiu also said, stating that our country did not have any fugitives, neither in 2023 nor in 2024, with this state, reports News. ro.

Alina Gorghiu declared after the Government meeting that the fugitive Paul from Romania was sentenced in the country to 3 years and 4 months for buying influence and complicity in the abuse of office in the Ferma Băneasa case, in which the damage is very high, 9.5 million euros.

The Minister of Justice specified that in December 2020 an arrest warrant was issued in his name.

“At this moment, Paul from Romania is in Malta. Based on the same European arrest warrant, the procedure was resumed. There was a court term where it was decided to pre-arrest this fugitive until May 9, a decision which, of course, can be contested and I intuit that it will be contested”, said Gorghiu.

She also said that the request made by the fugitive’s team to be released on bail was rejected.

“The Ministry of Justice and the enforcement court will do all the diligence for this fugitive to be returned to the country. By the 9th of May we will communicate the arrest warrant, translated into English and Maltese, we will make sure that we open a dialogue with the authorities in Malta and that we will have a constant dialogue. After the holidays, I will also try a dialogue at the level of Minister of Justice, with my counterpart in Malta, to discuss the manner in which we can cooperate judicially in criminal matters, without making acts of interference in the act of justice and this I specify every time, because we cannot intervene in the justice system of any other state”, announced Gorghiu.

Gorghiu emphasized that, regarding Malta, we did not have any fugitives, neither in 2023, nor in these months of 2024.

“So we can’t say we have a practice. On the contrary. That is why I think it is absolutely necessary to discuss with the authorities in Malta in order to be able to establish parameters in which we can collaborate in the future. However, I am convinced that justice in Malta is done according to European standards and that they will take into account all the arguments that the enforcement court will provide. Proactively, we will update the detention conditions through the ANP, compared to those we communicated to the court in France, and we will make them available to the authorities in Malta”, added Alina Gorghiu.

The minister also said that the procedure for bringing the fugitive into the country depends on the state and can vary between 3 and 6 months.

“With Malta no longer having situations of handing over fugitives, I could not say how fast the procedure provided by the legislation of this state is, but we will see the terms that the court in Malta will give starting on May 9”, explained Gorghiu.

Publisher: AC

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