Mercenary leader Horațiu Potra, on the run and allegedly seeking refuge in Russia after he was charged of trying to stoke unrest and stage a coup in Romania, on Wednesday was detained in Dubai, the justice minister confirmed.
Mr. Potra, 52, was officially indicted by Romanian prosecutors alongside failed presidential candidate Calin Georgescu and 20 alleged mercenaries and charged with plotting violent unrest in Bucharest following the cancellation of 2024 presidential elections, which Georgescu surprisingly won.
Romania accused Russia of meddling in the election to skew the result, which it denied.
Justice Minister Radu Marinescu said Wednesday he was confident that Mr. Potra could be extradited even though Romania doesn’t have a treaty or a convention with the United Arab Emirates.
“We are basing (extradition requests) on the basis of reciprocity, and those forms of judicial cooperation are efficient,” he said. Mr. Potra, who had an international arrest warrant against him was detained with two family members, media reported.
Potra and the others are also indicted for the illegal possession of weapons and explosives, unlawful use of pyrotechnics, and inciting public unrest.
According to investigators, Potra’s paramilitary convoy of seven vehicles attempted to enter the capital to spark mass protests and clashes with security forces after last year’s election was sensationally annulled.
Romania’s prosecutor general, Alex Florența, has called the case “the most serious monitored in the last 35 years,” saying Romania, a NATO and EU member is under sustained hybrid warfare aimed at destabilizing society and manipulating public opinion against its government.
Evidence showed “beyond any doubt” Mr. Potra’s links to Russia, citing correspondence in Russian, multiple trips to Moscow, and meetings with the Russian ambassador in Bucharest, the general prosecutor said.
Florența repeated allegations that Georgescu, who improbably won the first round of the 2024 presidential election, was a beneficiary of hybrid operations coordinated by Russia.
Investigators exposed a disinformation network of more than 2,000 Facebook pages, at least one viral hashtag campaign, and 20,000 automated TikTok accounts that were activated right before the election. They generated millions of comments and over 156 million views with their pro-Georgescu messaging.
Osavul identified that over 85% of Georgescu’s online campaign content originated from fake profiles, bots, and AI-generated videos—manipulating social media algorithms to amplify pro-Georgescu narratives.
Between 2022 and 2023, a network of 20,321 fake accounts emerged to engage in online discourse in favor of Georgescu.
These accounts flooded social media platforms with over 2.1 million pro-Georgescu comments starting on November 23, 2024, just a day before the first round of voting.
The network’s operations were traced back to Russian email domains like rambler.ru, and naming templates for fake profiles followed a uniform structure, such as “ushakov.” or “aleksandrov.” with random alphanumeric sequences.
