A Romanian court has acquitted businessman Gabriel Popoviciu who was fled the country after a court handed him a 7-year jail sentence for bribery in 2017.
The 65-year-old former real estate tycoon was last reported to be in Britain where he found legal protection after he was sentenced.
Popoviciu was sentenced to 7 years of detention in a real estate case for allegedly fraudulently acquiring land in north Bucharest where IKEA and the U.S. Embassy are located. He skipped his sentence and lives in London.
However, a retrial was ordered. The Bucharest Court of Appeal on Friday annulled the sentence against Mr. Popoviciu and six others in a retrial which began last year. The case focused on the restitution of land in northern Bucharest to build a shopping mall. The ruling is not dinal.
In August 2019, a UK court ruled on Popoviciu could be extradited to Romania, but on 11 June 2021, the High Court of England and Wales upheld Popoviciu’s appeal and overturned the lower court’s ruling.
Judge Holroyde and Judge Jay upheld his appeal on the grounds he did not have a fair trial in Romania.
Popoviciu was assisted by Edward Fitzgerald QC, one of the best lawyers in London in extradition cases.
In January 4, 2021, Fitzgerald QC persuade the court not to extradite Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange who is wanted by the FBI on espionage charges. In December 10, 2021, another high court panel in London ruled that Assange could be extradited to the US. Assange was freed last month.
Popoviciu mobilized other influential lawyers globally, such as Hunter Biden, Louis Freeh the former head of the FBI, and Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York and Donald Trump’s lawyer.
Gabriel Popoviciu wins extradition battle in UK’s Supreme Court
