The Iași Court of Appeal decided, on Monday, to send for retrial the decision to extend the preventive arrest of Dumitru Buzatu, the suspended president of the Vaslui County Council. The decision of the Court of Appeal is final.
Court minutes: “Based on art. 4251 paragraph 7 point 2 letter b) Code of criminal procedure rap. to art. 204 of the Code of Criminal Procedure and art. 5 of the ECHR, admits the appeals filed by the National Anti-Corruption Directorate – Iasi Territorial Service and the defendant-appellant Buzatu Dumitru (…) against the conclusion no. 11/DLF pronounced on 15.11.2023 by the judge of rights and liberties from the Vaslui Court in criminal case no. 2259/89/2023, conclusion which it abolishes in its entirety. Send the case for retrial to the judge of rights and liberties of the Vaslui Court. Pursuant to art. 275 para. 3 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the legal expenses incurred for the settlement of the appeals filed remain the responsibility of the state. Definitive. Solved in the council chamber and pronounced today, 20.11.2023, by making the solution available to the defendants and the prosecutor, through the intervention of the court registry.
Document: Conclusion – preventive measures (UP phase) 251/2023 20.11.2023.”
The judges of the Vaslui Court approved, on November 15, the request of the DNA Territorial Service of Iasi, to keep Dumitru Buzatu in preventive detention, starting on November 23.
Dumitru Buzatu’s lawyer requested, in front of the judges, to replace the custodial measure with a lighter one.
In the order of the prosecutors, it is stated that, in the case, there are data and evidence that outline the following state of facts: “During the period 08.05.2023 – 07.09.2023, the defendant Buzatu Dumitru, in the capacity mentioned above, allegedly claimed from a man of business (witness in question) sums of money, representing a percentage of 10% of the value of a public procurement contract that the latter had concluded with the Vaslui County Council and which had as its object the rehabilitation and modernization of some roads in Vaslui County so that the contract to proceed in good conditions (payment of bills).
In the context mentioned above, on September 22, 2023, the defendant Buzatu Dumitru would have received the sum of 1,250,000 lei, on which occasion the flagrant crime was established.
