An 18 year long legal battle finally came to an end on 15 January 2025 as Romania’s High Court of Cassation and Justice, essentially the country’s Supreme Court, upheld an earlier decision by the Bucharest Court of Appeal in July 2024 that Gabriel ‘Puiu’ Popoviciu be fully acquitted. This final and irrevocable ruling by the High Court of Cassation and Justice fully exonerates Popoviciu and his fellow defendants in the case related to the Băneasa shopping, office and residential development.
Gabriel (Puiu) Popoviciu, who was wrongly accused in the case surrounding the Băneasa development, had always maintained his innocence. In July 2024, Judge Liana Arsenie, the head of the Court of Appeal, confirmed his innocence when she delivered a 172 page judgment, which highlighted in particular the conduct of prosecutor Nicolae Marin (of Romania’s National Anti-Corruption Directorate, known as the DNA) and his persecution of Mr Popoviciu.
Judge Liana Arsenie ordered the acquittal of all 11 defendants on the grounds that that the alleged offences did not exist. She gave a highly critical assessment of how prosecutor Nicolae Marin had operated, stating: “The investigating authority assigned fictitious roles and functions and imagined authority relationships. The prosecution was built on a scenario imagined by the prosecutor.” She highlighted “truncated interpretations, the breaking of logical-legal algorithms and the attribution of criminal connotation to the exercise of civil rights and obligations.”
Popoviciu and his ten fellow defendants had been accused by Nicolae Marin of abuse of office, bribery and favouring the offender in connection with SC Băneasa Investments SA’s project on a 224-hectare plot of land where the largest shopping, office and residential complex in Romania was built. The July 2024 verdict from Bucharest’s Court of Appeal found that these allegations, involving an alleged gift of a bottle of whiskey and a PET bottle of homemade plum brandy, plus the offer of a position for the witness Motoc Ion (who later confirmed he never received such an offer), were completely fabricated by prosecutor Nicolae Marin. Both the January 2025 ruling and the July 2024 acquittal come as a result of the review and retrial of the case. Both rulings firmly conclude that Popoviciu and the other defendants were convicted abusively.
Although Popoviciu and the other defendants were all eventually fully vindicated, the lengthy legal battle has undoubtedly been an onerous ordeal for all of those wrongly accused. The saga began 18 years ago and has played out not only in the Romania courts, but in the UK courts too. In July 2023 the UK’s Supreme Court discharged Romania’s extradition request for Popoviciu. The Supreme Court was in full agreement with the 11 June 2021 decision by London’s High Court to refuse Popoviciu’s extradition to Romania, because, as stated by British judge Lord Justice Holroyde, “The evidence shows a real risk that the appellant suffered an extreme example of a lack of judicial impartiality, such that there can be no question as to consequences for the fairness of the trial.” Edward Fitzgerald KC said that Popoviciu would suffer a “flagrant denial of justice” if sent back to serve his sentence in Romania.
A close family friend of Popoviciu’s summed up: “In fact it was an ordeal lasting precisely 18 years, seven months and one day for Puiu and his family. That is a terribly long time to endure an injustice and ever-present court procedures. We are all relieved that it is over and delighted that justice was finally done, however long it may have taken. But it is also unfathomable for us that a man who was behind so much growth and development in his home country has had its legal system weaponised against him. Fortunately his main focus now is to continue his work and his contribution to the Romanian economy.”
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