Former deputy Cătălin Rădulescu “Mitraliera”, acquitted by the Bucharest Court of Appeal after a year of delays in pronouncing the decision / The case was restarted from scratch after the change of judge
Cătălin Rădulescu in 2017, when he was a deputy. Photo: Inquam Photos / Octav Ganea
The former PSD deputy from Argeș Cătălin Rădulescu, also known by the nickname “Mitraliera”, was acquitted on Tuesday by the Bucharest Court of Appeal, in a case in which he is accused by the DNA of having received the title of “Fighter for the Victory of the Revolution of December 1989 – Fighter with a Determining Role”, although he did not meet the conditions stipulated by the law, informs Agerpres.
The Bucharest Court of Appeal, the court that is now at the center of the judicial scandal, ordered his acquittal for the crimes of forgery in statements and complicity in abuse of office with obtaining undue benefits, on the grounds that the act does not exist. However, the decision is not final.
In the same case, Cristina Valentina Cechi, member of the Commission for the issuance of the new Certificate of Fighter with a Determining Role, was also acquitted.
Sentencing, postponed 19 times
The case was sent to the court in December 2021, and in October 2023 the initially appointed judge was changed, so that the new panel had to restart the trial from scratch, including re-hearing the witnesses.
It should be mentioned that the court postponed the pronouncement of a decision in this case 19 times, during one year and three months (September 2024 – December 2025).
According to DNA, employees of the State Secretariat for the recognition of the merits of fighters against the communist regime (SSPR), including Adrian Sanda (at the time of the act, secretary of state), in violation of the provisions of Law no. 341/2004, would have granted, during 2016, the title of “Fighter for the Victory of the Revolution of December 1989 – Fighter with a Determining Role” to Cătălin Rădulescu, although he did not fulfill one of the conditions provided by the law, namely that of having carried out revolutionary activities in a locality where, as a result of actions and confrontations with repression forces, people were killed, injured or detained until December 22, 1989, 12:10 p.m. – the time when dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu fled.
The title is granted based on the provisions of Law no. 341/2004 in gratitude for the victory of the Romanian Revolution in December 1989, for the anti-communist workers' revolt in Braşov in November 1987 and for the anti-communist workers' revolt in Valea Jiului – Lupeni, August 1977.
What allowance he improperly collected
Specifically, the members of the commission would have admitted the request made by the former deputy Cătălin Rădulescu and would have found the fulfillment of the legal conditions for granting the title of Fighter with a Determining Role only on the basis of two statements (from 2015 and 2016) in which he would have specified aspects inconsistent with reality regarding his revolutionary activity in the cities of Timisoara and Bucharest between December 16 and 21, 1989.
“The respective statements would have been obviously contradicted by the documents in his administrative file, existing at the SSPR, from which it would appear that the suspect carried out revolutionary activity only in the city of Pitesti, starting on December 22, 1989, after the dictator's escape, not at all in the cities of Timisoara and Bucharest,” said the prosecutors.
As a result of these steps, Cătălin Rădulescu was granted, by presidential decree, the title of “Fighter with a Determining Role”, with the consequence that he improperly obtained a gratitude allowance in the amount of 2,020 lei/month starting from January 1, 2015, a total of 143,420 lei.
