Prince Paul of Romania was caught in a resort in Malta. He had fled the country in 2020, after a final conviction

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One of Romania’s famous fugitives, Prince Paul, was caught yesterday in Malta. According to Observator sources, he was on vacation in a resort, and following the cooperation between the Romanian and Maltese police, Prince Paul was detained.

By the Observator editorial team on 29.04.2024, 08:32

The specific procedures are to be carried out in relation to him, added the quoted sources.

On April 6, the representatives of the Ministry of Justice sent, regarding the European arrest warrant in the name of Paul-Philippe de Romania, that the court in France definitively rejected his surrender to the authorities in our country, citing the illegal composition of the court panel from Romania. “More precisely, the fact that one of the judges would not have taken the oath at the inauguration”, according to MJ. Although the case prosecutor from the French Public Prosecutor’s Office declared an appeal, he did not justify the appeal within the deadline and, therefore, he was denied the deadline, and the decision of the first instance remained final.

France has not provided information on Prince Paul’s condition

The Minister of Justice Alina Gorghiu declared, on Thursday, about the extradition of Prince Paul from Romania, from France, that she still has no answer from the French counterpart related to his situation, whose surrender was definitively rejected by the French justice due to a procedural flaw . “I expect the minister to be able to ask the system what happened in that case,” added Gorghiu.

On May 17, 2023, the Ministry of Justice presented a situation of persons wanted or prosecuted for the execution of sentences ordered by Romanian courts, as well as the countries where they are located and the stage of the procedures carried out to bring them to the country. Thus, according to the situation presented by the MoJ representatives, Prince Paul is being prosecuted internationally on the basis of a European arrest warrant issued by the Braşov Court of Appeal on 18.12.2020 for the execution of a sentence of 3 years and 4 months in prison for committing the crime of buying influence, complicity in abuse of office – damage: 9,523,769 euros.

Prince Paul Phillipe of Romania was located on the territory of France, the procedure being ongoing, the French authorities requested the sentence of conviction – merits and appeal – translated into French, conditions of detention and other information related to the conduct of the criminal process – after a short period in which he was detained in preventive detention by CA Paris, he was released on bail.