Who are the judges in the first line of support for the heads of the Bucharest Court of Appeal

The president of the Bucharest Court of Appeal, Liana Arsenie, was escorted to the lectern, from where she held Thursday's press conference, by two of the vice-presidents of the court – judges Ionela Tudor and Sabina Adomniței. There were, however, around 30 other magistrates in the room, after the court management asked all the judges who were at work at the time to come to the press conference for “support”.

• HotNews does not comment on their professional career, but makes available to the public information about some of them because in the Romanian judiciary there is no custom of presenting the individual professional balance sheets of magistrates.

The press conference – the first in the history of the Bucharest Court of Appeal – was held exclusively by the president of the court, lasted around 50 minutes and was suddenly stopped by Arsenie, although only 5 of the approximately 25 journalists present had managed to ask questions.

Behind the president and the vice-presidents were, standing, in the first line, behind them, more than 20 magistrates, including:

Andreea Ionescu she is the judge who was part of the panel that tried Marian Vanghelie, but then she was changed from the panel, “to balance the dynamics of work” at the other criminal section, as stated by the president of the Bucharest Court of Appeal in the press conference.

Andrei Iuganthe magistrate caught with his hand over his mouth while judge Raluca Moroșanu affirmed that the testimonies in the Recorder documentary are true, was part of panels that pronounced sentences in famous cases. He was in the panel that tried, in the first instance, the Colectiv case, and decided to convict Piedone, who was later acquitted by the supreme court. He opposed the annulment of the conviction of the former president of the National Health Insurance House Lucian Duță, but decided to annul the 5-year prison sentence of the former vice-governor of the National Bank of Romania Bogdan Olteanu. Iugan was also part of the panel that decided to return to DIICOT the file in which brothers Andrew and Tristan Tate were tried for forming an organized criminal group, human trafficking and rape.

Catalina Cruceru she is the judge who was part of the panel that, in an extraordinary way of attack, decided to annul the 4-year prison sentence of Realitatea Plus owner, Maricel Păcuraru, punishment received in the Pošta Română file. Recently, the judge decided final acquittals for all the defendants in the RCS-RDS case, in which the former president of the Professional Football League Dumitru Dragomir was also on trial.

Florentina Rizescu she is the judge who decided to lift the seizures of 90 million euros in the case of Nordis, seizures instituted by the prosecutor on the Hotel Nordis Mamaia, hundreds of apartments, land, parking spaces, on the accounts and shares held by the owners of Nordis, Vladimir Ciorbă, Florin Alexandru Poștoacă, the legal director Camelia Bîndiu and the parent company of the group, Nordis Management. She was also part of the panel that decided to eliminate the DNA evidence from the file in which the doctor Irinel Popescu was accused of trying to bribe prosecutors with 100,000 euros, in order to escape the accusations from another file. Judge Rizescu's decision was given after the case had been in the preliminary chamber for 22 months.

Virginia Opariuc he was part of the panel that in August decided to retry the trial of the former manager of the Malaxa Hospital Florin Secureanu, sentenced in the first instance to 11 years in prison. The decision was taken after the file had been in the Court of Appeal for half a year. In the first instance, the case was tried for 7 years, and the panel postponed the ruling 22 times from December 2023 to November 2024.

Delia Alecjudge transferred in August to the CAB from the Bucharest Court.

Cosmin Virgil Cornoiuformer vice president of the Ilfov Court.

Raluca Cozanformer president of the 6th Civil Section of the Bucharest Court of Appeal.

The “extraordinary” press conference organized after the Recorder documentary, “Captured Justice”, began with a shock intervention by magistrate Raluca Moroșanu from the Bucharest Court of Appeal.

Dressed in robes, Judge Moroșanu appeared in front of journalists and affirmed in front of her own bosses that the testimonies in the Recorder documentary represent the truth. Raluca Moroșanu also said that the atmosphere in the Court of Appeal is tense, toxic, and judges are terrorized with disciplinary actions.

Another moment of the press conference was caught on video cameras. It is the moment when the vice-president of the Bucharest Court of Appeal, Ionela Tudor, whispers to the president of the court, Liana Arsenie, that she is called by “Lia”.

“Lia called me, I'm going to talk,” says Ionela Tudor to the CAB president.

Judge Ionela Tudor returns to the lectern – after about a minute – next to the president of the Court of Appeal, who was answering the HotNews journalist.

In the video images, Ionela Tudor can be heard whispering to the president of the Court of Appeal: “It is excluded that Predoiu intervened… He did not suggest…”.