The former mayor of District 5, Cristian Popescu Piedone, will be released from prison, where he is serving a 4-year-sentence in the Colectiv fire file. Theruling is final.
The magistrates rejected as unfounded the cassation appeals filed by the defendants Matei George Petrică, Anastasescu George Alin, Niţă Cristian Mihai and Radu Antonina against the convictions pronounced by the Bucharest Court of Appeal.
On May 12, last year, Cristian Popescu-Piedone was sentenced by the Bucharest Court of Appeal to 4 years in prison for abuse of office, a sentence reduced by half compared to the sentence of 8 years and 6 months in prison that he received at the Bucharest Court. In addition to the halving of the sentence, Piedone was removed from the list of defendants who must pay tens of millions of euros in damages to the victims of the fire.
In the same case, the owners of the Colectiv club were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 6 to 11 years and 8 months, and George Matei and Antonina Radu, the two firefighters from ISU Bucharest who checked the Colectiv club without taking legal measures regarding compliance with PSI rules, they received 8 years and 8 months in prison each. Cristian Niţă, director of the fireworks company, has a suspended sentence of 2 years and 6 months.
Piedone will also be allowed to resume his mandate as mayor of District 5 in Bucharest. The Bucharest Prefecture announced on Wednesday that the former mayor Cristian Popescu Piedone has the right to resume his mandate at the District 5 City Hall.
“Regarding the decision taken today by the High Court of Cassation and Justice, regarding Mr. Cristian Popescu Piedone, by which the conviction from the Bucharest Court of Appeal was abolished, this means, more precisely, that Mr. Piedone has the right to resume his mandate, without any legal restriction. The conviction, respectively the basis for the termination of his lordship’s mayoral mandate, from that moment, has been abolished, and all the effects of the conviction are abolished retroactively,” says the Prefecture’s press release.
Upon leaving the prison, Piedone himself confirmed he will resume his mayor term.
“I will be reinstated, I will take the sector to the end (…) I prayed to God to open the judges’ eyes. Until the High Court, we only had those skeletons in the closet of the judges… Today, the judiciary, through the Supreme Court… and I’m not saying this for thanks… there is hope in Romania for justice”.
He claimed that he was in prison “for nothing” and that he could ask for moral damages, but he will not.
“I spent a year or so in prison for nothing. If my children were there that evening (editor note: on the night of October 30, 2015 when the fire burst in Colectiv club), I would still tell them that I am innocent”, said Cristian Popescu Piedone.