Horațiu Potra seeks lifting of house arrest at Bucharest Court of Appeal
The Bucharest Court of Appeal is hearing a new request from Horațiu Potra to lift house arrest in the case of an attempted coup alongside Călin Georgescu.
Potra seeks freedom again: Court of Appeal to decide on house arrest
The Bucharest Court of Appeal examined on Wednesday a new request submitted by Horațiu Potra in which the leader of the mercenaries seeks to replace house arrest with a less restrictive measure, according to Digi24. Potra is accused, along with Călin Georgescu, of attempted coup.
Until June, Potra was held in preventive detention, at which point the court decided to transfer him to house arrest. Since then, the leader of the mercenary group has submitted several requests to lift this measure, all rejected by the courts.
At the beginning of August, the case passed the preliminary hearing stage through a final decision by the High Court of Cassation and Justice, which means that the trial on the merits can begin.
Charges in the case
Călin Georgescu has been referred to trial for complicity in an attempted commission of actions against the constitutional order and for communicating false information.
Horațiu Potra is being charged for attempted commission of offences against the constitutional order, failure to comply with the weapons and ammunition regime, failure to comply with the explosives regime and illegal operations with pyrotechnic items.
The case was opened by prosecutors from the General Prosecutor's Office after Potra and his mercenaries were stopped in traffic in December 2024 whilst heading towards Bucharest.
The destabilisation plan of 7 December 2024
According to prosecutors, on 7 December 2024, Georgescu and Potra met at an equestrian centre in Ilfov County to finalise a plan to divert a protest organised in support of the former candidate in the presidential elections. At this meeting, Sechilă and Marian Burcea, Georgescu's bodyguard, also participated.
After the meeting, Georgescu allegedly contacted Dan Grăjeanu, the leader of the far-right organisation Frăția Ortodoxă, conveying to him that "in the course of the following day he will issue a concrete call: life or country". Prosecutors characterise this gathering as a meeting preceding "destabilising events" intended to "create chaos and insecurity".
The targeted protest was to take place on 8 December 2024, in front of the Cathedral of the Salvation of the Nation, at Georgescu's call, including through a television appearance. The demonstrators were to be used as "manpower for carrying out subversive actions", according to the indictment.
Armed mercenaries with explosive materials
Potra allegedly oversaw the recruitment of individuals to participate in the protest, including mercenaries who possessed weapons. Twenty of these are referred to trial alongside Georgescu and Potra.
Prosecutors argue that the mercenaries were armed with high-power pyrotechnic materials and carried an extremely large number of dangerous objects. Their role was allegedly to "create a climate of terror" among the crowd, so that Georgescu's supporters would call for the second round of the presidential elections to be held again.
The investigation characterises the operation as a "paramilitary operation of national destabilisation".
"Groups of people among whom pyrotechnic materials are detonated frequently behave in a manner that leads to disastrous, undesired or unanticipated consequences for group members. The result is emphasised here to facilitate diagnosis. Any crowd disaster — usually with more than one fatality — involves a certain type of panic, namely disorganisation", judicial sources explained to Digi24.
Source: Digi24