File 10 August. The former heads of the Gendarmerie heard for the first time in court, 8 years after the violence in Piața Victoriei

The former heads of the Romanian Gendarmerie are called, on Monday, to give statements before the judges of the Bucharest Military Court. It will be the first time that they will speak in court about the orders given on the night of August 10, 2018, before the magistrates pronounce a first verdict in this case, almost 8 years later since the violent interventions of the gendarmes since the diaspora protest in 2018.

• The General Prosecutor's Office sued, in August 2023, the heads of the Gendarmerie during the August 10, 2018 protest, but also other employees of the institution for crimes such as abuse of office, intellectual forgery and abusive behavior.
• The file was opened by prosecutors in 2018 as a result of the violence at the Piața Victoriei protest, it was initially closed by DIICOT in 2020 and reopened in the spring of 2022, following a protester's appeal.

Laurenţiu Cazan (former deputy of the Capital Gendarmerie), Sebastian Cucoş (former general inspector) and Cătălin Sindile (former first deputy) are accused of abuse of office, being the ones who coordinated the operation in Piaţa Victoriei and ordered the intervention by force that led to the violent dispersal of some peaceful protesters.

“A whole country has seen the images of old people, women and children being gassed and beaten by the gendarmes who were supposed to protect them. The heads of the Gendarmerie could tell before the judges who asked them to act against their own citizens. The heads of the Gendarmerie could tell before the judges who asked them to act against their own citizens. So far, however, we have only seen attempts to delay the trial, for to escape by prescribing the facts”, says Cătălina Hopârteanu, coordinator of the Declic campaign, quoted by News.ro.

According to the cited source, the hearings take place in a “critical context”, given that the facts in the “August 10” file will expire in just a few months, in October 2026.

“To avoid closing the file without a verdict, the Military Court accepted the request of the lawyers supported by the Declic community to waive the hearing of 373 witnesses remaining on the list, after more than 600 other witnesses described what happened in Piaţa Victoriei, thus speeding up the judicial procedure”, states Declic.

The case came before the judges after it was initially dismissed. Ioan Crăciuneanu, victim of the violence, obtained the reopening of the investigation being represented by his sister, lawyer Lucia Crăciuneanu, and by the lawyer of the Declic Community, Toni Decean. The members of the Declic Community financially supported the whole process, paying the lawyers' fees and legal costs. They analyzed hundreds of hours of video recordings, extracting clear evidence of gendarmes hitting citizens who did not show any form of violence.

What prosecutors say about what happened on August 10, 2018

“On August 10, 2018, at 11:11 p.m., on the occasion of the protest rally that took place in Piața Victoriei in the city of Bucharest, Col. Cazan Laurentiu Valentin, as commander of the action, as well as the defendants Cucoș Gheorghe Senastian, and Sindile Ionuț Cătălin, as coordinators of the same action, improperly performed their duties and ordered subordinate gendarmes, in violation of the legal provisions, intervened by force in order to disperse the entire mass of protesters present in Piața Victoriei (approximately 30,000 people), an intervention that they later led.

The actions of the defendants had the consequences of restricting the freedom of assembly and the right to physical and mental integrity of the demonstrators present in Piața Victoriei, fundamental rights provided by the Romanian Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), as well as causing physical suffering or injuries that required between 1 and 50 days of medical care to heal a number of 433 people.

From the investigations carried out in the case, it emerged that the forceful intervention of the gendarmes was done in violation of the principles of necessity, gradualness and proportionality, principles enshrined in the legal regulations on the matter and reflected in the jurisprudence of the ECtHR”, say the prosecutors of the General Prosecutor's Office who sent the former heads of the Romanian Gendarmerie to court.

According to the prosecutors, the gendarmes acted not only against the people who demonstrated violently, in order to isolate them and apply legal measures, but also against the peaceful demonstrators, who constituted the vast majority of the protesters.

“Specifically, the research carried out established that the military gendarmes used a total number of 63 hand grenades with an acoustic effect, 489 hand grenades with an irritating tear gas effect, 316 cartridges of 38 mm and 40 mm caliber, also with an irritating tear gas effect, 8 sprayers of increased capacity and 168 hand sprayers.

As for col. Cazan Laurentiu Valentin, the investigations carried out in the case established that, on August 11, 2018, being in the exercise of his duties, he drew up a preliminary action report, in which he attested to circumstances not corresponding to the truth, in the sense that he mentioned that the prefect of the municipality of Bucharest would have approved the intervention by force of the military gendarmes on the demonstrators gathered in Victoriei Square.

Regarding the other defendants, it emerged from the evidence administered in the case that, being in the exercise of their duties within the device for ensuring and restoring public order in Piața Victoriei, distinct from the order of intervention by force given by the first three previously mentioned defendants, they facilitated the use of physical force and the technical means provided or used them against some protesters unjustifiably, causing them suffering physical and/or bodily injuries that required between 1 and 50 days of medical care for healing”, the Prosecutor's Office also says.

The prosecutors also specify that in this case, two dismissals were ordered against two defendants, with which two plea agreements were later concluded in terms of the offense of abusive behavior, as well as other dismissals in order to identify some gendarmes regarding whom, from the investigations carried out, there were indications of the commission of criminal acts.