Romanian TV Station Owner Released From Custody, TV Producer Remains Under Preventive Arrest

The Bucharest Court ruled Friday to release from custody Romanian television station owner Dan Diaconescu, who was placed under 29-day preventive arrest along with Doru Parv, his TV producer, on charges of blackmailing and threatening a mayor.

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The Court decided Parv will remain under arrest and the ruling is definitive.

Diaconescu is forbidden to leave the country, meet with the witnesses in his case and talk about his case on the TV station he owns. Following the Court's decision, the TV owner will be investigated at large.

Diaconescu and Parv were heard by anticorruption prosecutors on Monday and the former was officially charged with blackmail in a corruption file opened in February 2010. Both Diaconescu and Parv were brought before court Wednesday, which ruled to place them under preventive arrest for blackmail, in a case regarding a complaint filed against Parv by Ion Mot, mayor of a commune in Arad county, western Romania.

According to sources close to the investigation, Mot accused Parv of soliciting bribe in order not to disclose images aimed to discredit him on Diaconescu's TV channel. The decision to start criminal investigations against Diaconescu, dated June 18, shows that the TV station owner threatened Mot, both directly and through Parv, in an attempt to get Mot to give them EUR200,000.

Daniel Fenechiu, Parv's lawyer, told MEDIAFAX Monday that prosecutors hold no other direct evidence against Diaconescu, except a recording of a TV show broadcast in 2009, adding that the complaint filed by Mot targeted only Parv, who made no accusations whatsoever against Diaconescu during hearings.

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