Viorel Pașca to learn on Monday whether he remains free in illegal care homes case from Bihor
The Bucharest Court of Appeal will decide on Monday whether to accept a DIICOT appeal regarding the preventive arrest of Viorel Pașca and members of his family, who are accused of human trafficking and organised criminal group offences in connection with unauthorised care homes in Bihor county.
Viorel Pașca to learn on Monday whether he remains free in illegal care homes case from Bihor
Judges at the Bucharest Court of Appeal will rule on Monday on a request by DIICOT prosecutors to jail Viorel Pașca and four other relatives, after a lower court decided to place them under judicial supervision in the case involving unauthorised care centres in Bihor.
Law enforcement want the defendants to be held in preventive arrest, whilst the Pașca family seeks the removal of any procedural obligations. At the beginning of July, investigators detained six individuals: Viorel Pașca, founder of the Association "Dumbrava – Dumnezeu Poartă de Grijă", his wife Florica, three descendants – Abel Timotei, Viorel Emanuel and Daniel Sabin, plus Delia Mioara Păcală, who managed the territorial units of the organisation. The following day, all were brought before a judge with a recommendation for arrest in custody, but the magistrate at the Bucharest Court dismissed the motion and imposed a judicial supervision measure.
According to the bill of indictment, hundreds of patients, many with mental health conditions, were transferred from hospital units and social services in various counties and taken to properties in the localities of Holod, Ceica, Tinca and Lăzăreni, under the pretence that they would receive specialised care. Prosecutors argue that the administrators did not have the necessary permits, organisational structure or expertise for such an activity, and that the persons housed were in a state of extreme vulnerability, being unable to defend themselves or express their consent.
Leaving the courtroom, Viorel Pașca declared himself innocent in his conscience, claiming that for twenty years he had sought to provide support to people "whom everyone had abandoned". He stated that he wished to bring "a benefit to society" for individuals coming from "extremely poor" backgrounds.
In justifying her decision to release the defendants, Judge Andrada Albescu from the Bucharest Court acknowledged that the premises operated outside the legal framework, but assessed that the spaces had "appropriate" standards of hygiene and accommodation, and that beneficiaries received food, clothing and treatment. The magistrate also wrote that the alternative to these centres would have been "the return to the streets of the ill", concluding that these aspects "diminish the intensity of concrete danger" in releasing the defendants to freedom.
Source: AGERPRES
Source: Google News RO — Crime (ro)