Sorin Oprescu will be heard in Greece Monday. What the Minister of Justice says about the chances that the former mayor will be extradited to Romania
Sorin Oprescu at the Prosecutor's Office next to the District 1 Court, in Bucharest, Thursday, June 30, 2016. Inquam Photos / Octav Ganea
The Minister of Justice, Radu Marinescu, spoke, on Sunday evening, at Digi24, about what was followed after the detention of Sorin Oprescu in Greece. Sentenced in Romania to 10 years and 8 months in prison for corruption, the former mayor of the Capital held on Saturday at Thessaloniki Airport.
Radu Marinescu said that at this moment there should be no impediment regarding the extradition of Sorin Oprescu in Greece, after, in July, the Greeks refused to teach the former mayor to Romania, invoking his health and the conditions of the Romanian penitentiary system.
“We appreciate that at this moment the conditions of detention offered by Romania are at European standards and that this impediment previously appreciated by the Greek authorities has disappeared. Of course, the judicial authorities in Greece will be pronounced,” the Minister of Justice told Digi24.
He explained that “the procedure of the European arrest warrant involves the examination with speed, which means that now, being arrested, will be presented to a magistrate, to formulate his position – or he agrees to Romania, or if he does not agree, a judicial procedure will be carried out in this regard.”
“We will take all the measures related to the loyal judicial cooperation and which are related to the Romanian state to provide the authorities with Greece all the relevant information. We repeat, I repeat, that regarding the conditions of detention have been made significant progress and that this impediment no longer exists,” adds Radu Marinescu.
Sorin Oprescu will be heard on Monday before a Greek prosecutor on his extradition in Romania. The reason is that the Greek authorities received new information from the Romanian justice regarding the conditions of detention in the Romanian penitentiaries.
On May 13, 2019, Sorin Oprescu had been sentenced by the Bucharest Court to 5 years and 4 months in prison for executing bribes, setting up an organized criminal group and abuse in service. Immediately after the conviction, he fled the country. Four days later, on May 17, 2022, Sorin Oprescu was caught and arrested in Greece.
On May 31, Oprescu was released after paying a bail of 5,000 euros, and the Athens Court of Appeal rejected Romania's request for extradition, invoking the health status of the former mayor and the conditions in the Romanian penitentiary system.
