Romanian Graft-Indicted Senator Catalin Voicu Stays In Custody

Supreme Court judges on Tuesday heard Voicu and businessman Costel Casuneanu and also debated on Voicu's arrest and an ex-officio request regarding the legality and justification of his arrest.

The court meeting prosecutor said Tuesday in court that he disagrees with Voicu's release, arguing that the statements made by Voicu and Casuneanu are contradictory. The prosecutor also said Voicu "admitted in his statement that he requested the files of several defendants in the case, took interest in and passed on court rulings and also talked to a judge about the legal status of one of the defendants' file". The prosecutor concluded that senator Voicu remains a threat to public order and therefore, he should be kept in custody.

Voicu's lawyers, in turn, said they have new evidence justifying their client's release under judicial supervision. They also said their client has been held in custody for more than seven months, which, they argued "seems to turn into conviction, rather than preventive arrest".

Mid-May this year, anticorruption prosecutors indicted Voicu, former judge Florin Costiniu and businessmen Casuneanu and Marius Locic on charges of influence peddling and fraud. The main defendant in the case is Voicu, who has been under arrest since late March and whose request for parole has been denied every time. The other three spent three days in jail and will be tried at large.

Romanian media made public fragments of discussions which show Voicu tried to intervene with the Supreme Court and the Police in cases involving Casuneanu, Locic and Constanta mayor's brother Alexandru Mazare.

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