INVESTIGATION. IOR Park: 1500 trees cut, dozens of fires and no responsible institution. Today, a key case reaches the judges' table

The Bucharest Court has a deadline today in a file that could change the legal situation of the retroceded area of ​​the IOR Park. The heir of the former owner, Maria Cocoru, also appeared in the file: Petre Băjenaru, the central businessman in the retrocession scheme. Before the trial, investigative website Snoop spoke to authorities, from the Capital Police to the Environmental Guard and the Minister of the Environment.

The file requesting the annulment of the act by which a piece of the IOR Park went to a number of private individuals will be judged on January 27 at the Bucharest Court.

In January 2026, there is no tree left to save in the retroceded part of the IOR Park. The land is an empty field covered with weeds partially hidden by a thick layer of snow. Even the plane trees, a landmark of the nocturnal meetings of the “rangers”, are no longer there.

The entire area between Constantin Brâncuși and Liviu Rebreanu streets was completely deforested. Looking from the lake towards the boulevard, you can see the gray blocks, once hidden by the branches of the trees.

Beneath the footprints in the snow lies the scorched earth from the more than 40 fires that occurred from 2022 to last year. On the alley that separates the contested land from the rest of the IOR Park is written in yellow: “Stolen park”. A little further, towards the white church, it says, also in yellow, “private property”.

The last mature tree left in the retroceded area of ​​the IOR Park was put down towards the end of 2025. Temporary constructions sprung up in its place: first a carousel, then a stage. Then a tent with colorful flags. All erected and installed illegally, without any authorization from the authorities. Fairs, shows, the arrival of Santa Claus were announced, under the hosting of Mushi Land, the amusement park of Sorin Musat, the tenant on the land.

Santa did not arrive, Mushi Land did not take place, and the tent and stage were dismantled after several complaints from local people and a series of fines. However, this did not prevent Sorin Mușat and Sorin Tuță, the one who presents himself as the representative of the former owner Maria Cocoru, from cutting down trees a few blocks away from the IOR, on Nicolae Grigorescu Boulevard. Also under the eyes of the local police.

From the silence of the state, people rose up who decided to take justice into their own hands.

The term in the file by which the IOR-Titan Civic Initiative Group tries to cancel the retrocession is judged on January 27 at the Bucharest Court.

A DNA file and some key figures

• The DNA is still investigating the retrocession of the 12.2 hectares of the IOR, after several complaints from citizens. The prosecutors are also considering a report by the National Authority for Property Restitution (ANRP) which found signatures in the retrocession documents that do not resemble each other and evidence that the Capital City Hall gave the first heir, Dan Ioan Romalo, “more (land, no) than it should have”. The ownership rights for the land in the park passed from Romalo to Cocoru in 2004.
• Petre Băjenaru appeared as the heir of Maria Cocoru in several cases involving land in Sector 3, including the 12 hectares in the IOR. The files, suspended after the woman's death, were reinstated. It is possible that there are more heirs of the family, according to Buletin de Bucharest, as the information on the court portal has not been changed for all the processes.
• Before he was officially declared an heir, Snoop wrote about how the Băjenaru family is behind the woman who in the 2000s became the owner of a land now estimated at 66 million euros.
• Petre Băjenaru has a real estate business and is a shareholder and partner in several companies. The Ministry of European Funds rented, during the mandate of Rovana Plumb, the current headquarters from two of Petre Băjenaru's companies, BASP Property SRL and BASP Ideal SRL. The rent is 2.4 million euros annually.

“It was a clear abuse,” says Bogdan Stroe, a member of the IOR-Titan Civic Initiative Group, about how the land in the park was returned.

In the file, the activists' argument is that at the time of its signing in 2009, the land was in the public domain. Lands in the public domain cannot be retroceded without first being transferred to the private domain by a decision of the General Council. There is no such ruling in respect of land in the IOR.

FINES

For 15 years, according to the old regulation, the local police gave fines with a ridiculous amount of 25 lei (paid on the spot). The carpenters laughed in front of the people and the authorities. The cuttings took place under the watchful eyes of the local police, who stood on the sidelines and begged them to stop.

From February 2024 to January 2025, the year in which the most cuttings took place, the Local Police of Sector 3 issued a warning and 11 fines, totaling 6,700 lei, for cutting trees on the reverted land, according to the institution's response to Snoop's request. Only one report was challenged.

The Local Police of the Municipality of Bucharest, on the other hand, issued 24 fines for cutting down trees in the IOR, in the same period of time, a total of 69,900 lei.

None of the fines issued by the local police have been paid, says the Capital City Hall. All of those in 2024 were instead challenged in court. For example, one of those fined in March 2023 was Sorin Tuță, who presents himself as the trustee of the former owner Maria Cocoru. He reasoned that he was not cutting trees, but mowing the grass with the mower because he had to keep the grounds clean. The judges found him right, with the argument that the retroceded land is not green space.

In November 2024, Sorin Tuță asked the Local Police of the Municipality of Bucharest, through a notification sent with the bailiff, to “stop entering the properties of my principal (land, no)”, to stop issuing “abusive” fines and to delete the video images they recorded in the IOR.

Freedom to cut trees for the sector municipalities

All the cuts were possible with extremely small penalties.

Only recently, the General Council of the Municipality of Bucharest increased the fines for cutting down trees – between 3,000 and 5,000 lei, according to the decision taken last October – instead of 25 lei. In addition to the fine, the one who cuts the tree must plant another six in compensation, for individuals, or 10, in the case of legal entities.

The project was proposed by USR general advisers Dragoș Radu and Cristian Didiță, after more than 15 years since the fines were last modified.

However, the decision was passed with a series of amendments, most of which were brought by Răzvan Nițu from PUSL, amendments that greatly changed the original project and its purpose regarding the protection of green spaces. Nițu was economic director of the Bucharest Lakes, Parks and Leisure Administration (ALPAB) under Gabriela Firea.

One of these gives more freedom to the sector municipalities to cut trees.

Councilors have reintroduced the general consent, a blank document that allows local administrations and companies contracted to maintain trees to clean without asking for a consent from the Environment Directorate for each individual tree and intervention. The town halls will be free to clean the trees for five months a year, between November and March.

Nițu's argument was that periodic maintenance of the trees is necessary, to prevent the collapse of the dry ones. And he cited that former mayor Nicușor Dan approved very few requests for approvals.

The CGMB voted “for” by a majority, despite the opposition of the civil society present at the meeting and some of the councilors, who said that such an opinion leaves room for abuse.

A few days before the vote, at the public debate on the project, Nițu's party colleague, Bogdan Jelea, said that “not every surface on which we have a bit of grass is green space” and that because of the “catastrophic activity of the former mayor” and his decision to block urban planning projects, i.e. constructions in the city, Bucharest's contribution to the public budget was considerably reduced.

Read on Snoop how after the IOR Park, the chainsaws moved to a neighboring area and started cutting down other trees.