Protest in Victoriei Square, on August 10: “They beat us. They found us. The facts are prescribed in 2026”
The organization “Corruption Kills” announced a rally that will take place on Sunday, seven years after the violent interventions of the gendarmes from the diaspora protest on August 10, 2018. In 2024, the Bucharest Military Court of Appeal decided that The file can go to court for the beginning of judgment on the merits.
“They beat us. They found us. The facts were prescribed in 2026. On August 10, 2018, hundreds of thousands of people went out against corruption, abuse of power and assault against independent justice. Over 400 injured, including journalists, children, passers-by. Among the victims, Ilie Gâzea, who had a few days,” a few days. “
The protest will take place on Sunday, August 10, in Victoriei Square, starting at 7:00 pm.
“In October 2026, if no justice is done, the prescription of criminal liability will intervene, and the culprits will escape unpunished. We do not forget!
The judgment on the merits in the file “August 10” can start
The file in which the former chiefs of the Romanian Gendarmerie from the moment of the diaspora protest of August 10, 2018 can go to court to start the trial on the merits, in October 2024, the Bucharest Military Court of Appeal by a definitive decision in which he rejected the defendants' appeals.
In August 2023, the General Prosecutor's Office sent the chiefs of the Gendarmerie during the protest of August 10, 2018, but also to other employees of the institution for crimes such as abuse in service, intellectual false and abusive behavior.
The file was opened by prosecutors in 2018 as a result of violence from the protest in Victoriei Square, was initially ranked by DIICOT in 2020 and reopened in the spring of 2022, following the appeal of a protester.
Now, once the appeals in the preliminary chamber stage, the file will be submitted to the merits to the Bucharest Military Court.
What prosecutors say what happened on August 10, 2018
“On August 10, 2018, at 23.11, on the occasion of the protest rally that took place in Victoriei Square in Bucharest, Cazan Laurențiu Valentin, as commander of the action, as well as the defendants Cucoș Gheorghe Senastian, and Ionuț Cătălin Sindile, as a coordinators of the same action, Service and ordered the subordinate gendarmes, in violation of the legal provisions, the intervention in force in order to disperse the entire mask of protesters present in Victoriei Square (about 30,000 people), an intervention that they subsequently led.
The facts of the defendants had as consequences the restriction of the freedom of meeting and of the right to physical and mental integrity of the protesters present in Victoriei Square, fundamental rights provided by the Romanian Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), as well as the challenge of physical suffering or lesions that required a number of 1 and a number of 43 days.
From the research carried out in question, it turned out that the force intervention of the gendarmes was done in violation of the principles of necessity, graduality and proportionality, principles enshrined in legal regulations and reflected in the ECHR jurisprudence.
Thus, it was held that the gendarmes acted not only against the persons who manifested themselves violently, in order to isolate them and apply the legal measures, but also against the peaceful protesters, which constituted the vast majority of the protesters.
Specifically, the researches have established that the gendarmes used to use the respective mission a total of 63 hand grenades with acoustic effect, 489 hand grenades with tear irritating effect, 316 38 mm caliber cartridges. and 40 mm., Also with tear irritating effect, 8 increased capacity sprayers and 168 hand sprayers.
As for Col. Cazan Laurențiu Valentin, the research carried out in this case established that, on August 11, 2018, being in the exercise of the duties of service, he prepared a preliminary action report, in which he attested the circumstances in charge of the truth, in the sense that he mentioned that the prefect of the municipality of Bucharest would have approved the intervention in the military.
Regarding the other defendants, from the evidence administered in this case, it was found that, being in the exercise of the duties of the service within the device for the insurance and restoration of the public order in Victoriei Square, distinct from the force intervention order given by the first three defendants mentioned above, they facilitated the use of the physical force and the technical means, to them physical suffering and/or bodily injury that required for healing between 1 and 50 days of medical care ”.
The prosecutors also specify that in this file there were also arranged classification solutions, two disjunctions against two defendants, with whom two agreements for recognizing the guilt were concluded in the aspect of committing the crime of abusive behavior, as well as other disjunctions in order to identify some gendarmes, to which the investigations have been carried out.
Also, according to the Public Ministry, until 01.08.2023, among the injured persons, 312 were constituted civil parties.
