Romanian real estate tycoon Gabriel ‘Puiu’ Popoviciu has won his case against extradition in the UK’s Supreme Court.
This court rejected Romania’s appeal against an earlier decision to refuse Popoviciu’s extradition to Romania, the EU Political Report reported.
The ruling came after six years of litigation and the court will deliver its judgment on the appeal in due course.
The Supreme Court’s decision comes after the 11 June 2021 decision by London’s High Court to refuse Popoviciu’s extradition to Romania after British judge Lord Justice Holroyde concluded: “The evidence shows a real risk that the appellant suffered an extreme example of a lack of judicial impartiality, such that there can be no question as to consequences for the fairness of the trial.”
Edward Fitzgerald QC claimed that Popoviciu, 64, would suffer a “flagrant denial of justice” if sent back to serve his sentence in Romania.
His win in the London courts comes just two months after the Bucharest Court of Appeal suspended the seven year prison sentence he received in the Băneasa real estate case.
The court said there were “new facts or circumstances that were not known when the case was settled, that are likely to prove the groundlessness of the conviction”.
The Romanian court’s decision came after Popoviciu faced allegedly false allegations of bribery, which seriously undermining the charge of corruption that he had faced, reported.
The anti-corruption commissioner declared in court that no bribes had been received from Popoviciu, either directly or indirectly.
The court heard that Ion Motoc, a judicial police officer in the Anti-corruption Directorate (DNA) said in his witness statement that “Popoviciu never offered me a bribe, directly or indirectly”.
The Băneasa real estate development project, in which Popoviciu played a key role is the city’s largest center in Bucharest.
A human rights advocate based in Brussels said: “This case in Romania was always worrying. This has been re-confirmed by the UK courts’ final refusal to send Popoviciu back to Romania this week.
In 2021, the UK’s High Court expressed concern about an undisclosed friendly relationship between a trial judge and an important prosecution witness.
Romanian court orders retrial of fugitive real estate tycoon Gabriel Popoviciu
