Horaţiu Potra escapes house arrest: ICCJ grants him judicial supervision
The ICCJ admitted on Thursday Horaţiu Potra's appeal and replaced his house arrest with judicial supervision for 60 days. The decision of the supreme court is final.
ICCJ replaces Horaţiu Potra's house arrest with judicial supervision for 60 days
The High Court of Cassation and Justice admitted on Thursday, 3 September, the appeal filed by Horaţiu Potra against the house arrest measure, according to News.ro. The court quashed the decision of the Bucharest Court of Appeal from 26 August and ordered the placement of the mercenary under judicial supervision for 60 days. The decision is final.
At the hearing on 4 August, the Bucharest Court of Appeal had upheld the house arrest "until a new review, but no later than 30 days" and rejected, as "unfounded", Potra's request to replace it with judicial supervision. The appeal subsequently filed with the supreme court reversed this ruling.
Previously, on 17 June, the ICCJ had already decided to ease the preventative measure, releasing Potra from pre-trial detention and placing him under house arrest. The court also admitted the appeals of his son, Dorian Potra, and his grandson, Alexandru Potra, who had been placed under judicial supervision after having been in house arrest.
The trial on the merits can begin
On 6 August, the ICCJ rejected the appeals filed in the preliminary chamber in the case in which Călin Georgescu, Horaţiu Potra and 20 other defendants are accused of actions against the constitutional order, thereby opening the way for trial on the merits at the Bucharest Court of Appeal. The court clarified that at this procedural stage, the merits of the accusations and the guilt of the persons sent for trial are not examined. "Determining the guilt or innocence of the defendants can only take place within the trial on the merits, under the conditions provided by law and with respect to all procedural safeguards," the ICCJ stated.
The decision of 6 August confirmed the ruling of the Bucharest Court of Appeal from 2 April, by which the court had determined that the trial on the merits can begin — a ruling initially challenged by both the defendants and the Public Prosecutor's Office.
Who is Horaţiu Potra and what is he accused of
Horaţiu Potra was arrested in Dubai in September 2025 and agreed to be brought to Romania, which is why the proceedings proceeded rapidly — in the absence of an extradition agreement with the United Arab Emirates, the process could have lasted considerably longer. He returned to the country on 20 November 2025, together with his son and his grandson.
Potra is being tried for attempted actions against the constitutional order, failure to comply with the firearms and ammunition regime, and failure to comply with the explosives regime. His son Dorian and his grandson Alexandru are standing trial for attempted actions against the constitutional order.
Former presidential candidate Călin Georgescu, a co-defendant in the same case, is accused of complicity in attempted actions against the constitutional order and the communication of false information, in a continuous form. Georgescu is also the subject of a second case, in which he is accused of Legionary propaganda and public promotion of persons guilty of genocide and war crimes. On 3 April, Georgescu had definitively escaped judicial supervision, after the Bucharest Tribunal admitted his appeal and partially quashed the decision of the Court of Sector 1.
Searches and weapons discovered
In the night of 7 to 8 December 2024, police officers set up checkpoints in the area of the localities Baloteşti-Săftica in Ilfov county and Măneşti and Corneşti in Dâmboviţa county, as well as in the capital. In the cars that were stopped and checked, knives, daggers, telescopic batons, pepper sprays, knuckle dusters, axes, pistols and pyrotechnic materials from the most dangerous category, with the potential to produce powerful explosions, were found.
The prosecutors who sent the 22 defendants to trial concluded that their actions had endangered national security, by creating a state of danger for the constitutional order and for the exercise of state power under the law.
On 26–27 February 2025, 47 searches were carried out at addresses in Sibiu, Mureş, Ilfov, Timiş and Cluj counties, targeting the homes of 27 persons and four business premises, including the residence of Horaţiu Potra. Investigators discovered in the mercenary's house, in a safe embedded under the floor, packages with stacks of dollars. Potra had stated that the law does not require him to keep his money in a bank. Also at his home, numerous weapons were found; the mercenary had stated at that time that he "accepts responsibility" for failure to comply with the firearms and ammunition regime, refusing to make further comments regarding the illegally held weapons.
Source: News.ro