Georgescu, Potra and the other 20 defendants accused of actions against the constitutional order, brought to the Bucharest Court of Appeal / When is the next term in the case

The former presidential election candidate Călin Georgescu, the mercenary Horatiu Potra, his son and grandson, as well as the other defendants in the case in which they are accused of actions against the constitutional order and non-compliance with the weapons and ammunition regime, were taken, on Wednesday, to the Bucharest Court of Appeal, where a judge analyzed, in the preliminary chamber, evidence and documents submitted to the case.

Horatiu Potra, under preventive arrest, his son and grandson, placed under house arrest, Călin Georgescu and the other defendants in the case were at the Bucharest Court of Appeal on Wednesday, reports News.ro.

At the deadline of December 22, 2025, the judge of the preliminary chamber approved the request made by Horatiu Potra regarding the submission to the file of a memory stick containing two video recordings and ordered the summoning of an assistant witness to the search of Potra's residence in Mediaş on February 26, 2025. The judge ordered the summons of the witness for the next term established in the case, in order to be heard.

On Wednesday, the Bucharest Court of Appeal set the next deadline for February 11.

“Grant a deadline of 11.02.2026 at 11:00 a.m., in order to fulfill the provisions of the court”, is the brief solution of the judge of the preliminary chamber.

The judge rejected other requests by Potra or other defendants in the case.

Horaţiu Potra remains in custody

On Monday, the Supreme Court decided that the mercenary Horaţiu Potra remains in custody, and his son and grandson, Dorian and Alexandru Potra, were placed under house arrest. The three were brought to the country from Dubai on November 20, 2025. The decision to maintain the preventive arrest of the three taken by the Bucharest Court of Appeal on January 9 was contested by them at the High Court of Cassation and Justice (ICCJ).

On November 21, 2025, Horaţiu Potra, his son and grandson were pre-arrested for attempting to commit actions against the constitutional order, non-compliance with the regime of weapons and ammunition and non-compliance with the regime of explosive substances, after they were caught in September in Dubai and brought to the country.

Horaţiu Potra was sent to court together with former presidential candidate Călin Georgescu and 20 other defendants accused of having committed serious crimes for the destabilization of Romania.

In the indictment, the prosecutors noted that, in the context of the CCR decision of December 6, 2024, by which the presidential elections in Romania were annulled, on the morning of December 7, 2024, Călin Georgescu met, at an equestrian complex in Ciolpani, Ilfov county, “in clandestine conditions”, with the mercenary Horaţiu Potra. According to the investigators, he acted in areas of international conflict and carried out paramilitary recruitment and training actions and supported Georgescu during the electoral campaign, but also before, for the purpose of its preparation.

Georgescu maintained and strengthened Potra's “criminal resolution”, say the investigators

The prosecutors informed that, at the meeting in Ciolpani, Georgescu and Potra discussed a plan according to which the mercenary and people from his entourage, with military training, were to carry out “violent actions of a subversive character”, in order to hijack the peaceful demonstrations of that time.

“The strategy aimed, through emotional and behavioral contagion doubled by the manipulation of collective emotions, in the context of a moment of maximum social tension, to change the constitutional order or to make it difficult or prevent the exercise of state power”, stated the investigators.

They mentioned that through his actions, including contacting the leader of a radical-nationalist organization and sending an “alarmist and potentially manipulative” exhortation to his supporters to continue the vote, Georgescu maintained and strengthened Potra's “criminal resolution”.

The prosecutors also showed that Horatiu Potra coagulated a paramilitary group of 21 people, led by him, deciding to move with seven cars to Bucharest, where to start protests against the state authorities, which were to be diverted into “violent actions capable of perfecting the revisionist policy” of Călin Georgescu, “in the sense of preventing the exercise of legitimate power in the state and ensuring the reconfiguration of the constitutional order, through detachment from its fundamental principles and the rules of the rule of law”, endangering national security.

On the night of December 7 to 8, 2024, the police conducted searches in the area of Baloteşti-Săftica, from Ilfov County, and Măneşti and Corneşti, from Dâmboviţa County, as well as in the Capital, stopping and controlling cars, inside which they found pocketknives, daggers, long-bladed knives, telescopic batons, pepper sprays, boxes, axes and ax tails, guns and pyrotechnic materials in the most dangerous category, with the potential to produce powerful explosions that could have caused immense damage, serious injury and death.

The conclusion of the prosecutors who sent the 22 defendants to court is that the immediate consequence of their actions consisted in jeopardizing national security, by creating a state of danger for the constitutional order, as well as for the social values ​​that protect the exercise of state power under the law.

On February 26-27, 2025, 47 searches were carried out at addresses in Sibiu, Mureş, Ilfov, Timiș and Cluj counties, of relatives of the former presidential candidate Călin Georgescu. The searches targeted the homes of 27 people and four company offices, one of them being the mercenary Horaţiu Potra. In his house, in a safe built under the floor, the investigators discovered packages with stacks of dollars, the politician from Mediaş saying that the law does not oblige him to keep his money in the bank. Numerous weapons were also found in Potra, he declared at the time that he “assumes” the non-respect of the regime of the Armenians and the ammunition, but refused to make any other comments regarding the illegally possessed weapons.