Seven years after the April 7, 2009 events, the Prosecutor General’s Office (PGO) reported that it started 102 criminal cases against persons who took an active part in the public disorder accompanied by acts of hooliganism and thefts, during which the Parliament Building and the Presidential Office were devastated, IPN reports.
In the period, 31 criminal cases against 43 persons were sent to court. The courts of law passed 19 sentences against 28 persons. Within nine cases, 14 persons were convicted. One person was acquitted and nine cases involving 13 persons were dropped.
The prosecutors also investigated the offenses committed by representatives of the public authorities against protesters and other persons, which were classed as abuse of power, use of torture, etc. There were registered and examined 108 complaints, while in 31 cases the prosecutors examined the situation voluntarily. Based on the complaints, there were started 71 criminal cases: 42 over use of torture, 19 over abuse of authority, while 10 over other types of offenses.
Twenty-eight cases against 47 police officers were sent to court. In the other cases, the investigation was stopped because the elements of an offense were absent or was suspended because the identity of the persons who acted illegally could not be discovered as these wore balaclavas.
According to the PGO, though most of the criminal cases concerning illegalities committed by the police were remitted to court in 2009 and 2010, the examination of 13 cases involving 24 police officers is delayed. Among such cases are those of Iacob Gumenita, which was sent to court on May 21, 2010, and of Petru Corduneanu and Dumitru Russu, which was remitted to court on February 26, 2010. Both of these cases were started over abuse of power.
