High court judges fate of unauthorised centre network in western Romania
Five people, including the leader of an alleged criminal organisation and his close relatives, await a ruling on a preventive measure in a human trafficking case.
High court judges fate of unauthorised centre network in western Romania
On Monday, judges at the capital's appellate court were to rule on an appeal filed by organised crime prosecutors against an earlier court ruling. Five individuals – the head of an extended family, his wife, his male descendants and a close associate – are accused of exploiting hundreds of vulnerable people through unlicensed shelter-type residential facilities in Bihor County.
Investigators requested that the supervision measure be replaced with deprivation of liberty. Initially, on 2 July, the lower court judges rejected the proposal to detain them for 30 days and opted for judicial supervision. Prosecutors considered this solution insufficient and challenged it.
The investigation began after authorities discovered that, from 2020 onwards, an association presenting itself as charitable had gathered dozens of elderly people, homeless individuals and people with serious mental disorders in a confined space. They were allegedly kept in poor conditions and used as a source of income, without receiving adequate medical or social care.
The number of victims cited by the investigation exceeds two hundred, but the defence argues that many of these have not been specifically identified and that the criminal investigation records do not describe the individual circumstances of each one.
The main suspect, an elderly man, declared before the court that he considers himself innocent and that his activities were always humanitarian in purpose. He claimed that he has spent two decades trying to provide support to those abandoned by families and institutions.
Source: News.ro
Source: News.ro