The Supreme Court on Wednesday definitively overturned the 7-year prison sentence received in 2017 by Gabriel Puiu Popoviciu and ordered the acquittal of the businessman for corruption in connection with the association of his company, SC Băneasa Investments SA, with the University of Agronomic Sciences and Veterinary Medicine in the capital for a 224-hectare plot of land.
The Supreme Court thus upheld the decision pronounced in July by the Bucharest Court of Appeal, a decision then challenged by the DNA. “Rejects, as unfounded, the appeals filed by the Prosecutor’s Office attached to the High Court of Cassation and Justice – National Anticorruption Directorate and the civil parties the Romanian State through the Ministry of Finance and the University of Agronomic Sciences and Veterinary Medicine in Bucharest against criminal sentence no. 110/F of 12.07.2024 pronounced by the Bucharest Court of Appeal – Criminal Section I, in file no. 46/1/2020″, is the decision of the High Court of Cassation and Justice.
The magistrates thus admitted Puiu Popoviciu’s request for review of the prison sentence. The argument of the Bucharest Court of Appeal – the first instance that acquitted Popoviciu – was that “the act does not exist”.
“Admits the request for review formulated by the reviewer Popoviciu Gabriel-Aurel, the effects of which were also extended to the defendants Alecu Ioan Niculae, Bejenaru Andrei Mihai, Diaconescu Ștefan, Șerban Ilie Cornel, Pitcovici Petru Daniel, Luican Mihai Ion Florin, Toader Gabriel Răsvan, Todiraș Ioan, Minea Lizeta, Petrulian Gheorghe. Annuls the criminal sentence no. 115/F/23.06.2016 pronounced by the CAB in file no. 9577/2/2012, final by criminal decision no. 266/A/02.08.2017 of the ICCJ and in the retrial of the criminal side reunited with the civil side that is the subject of criminal file no. 46/1/2020: pursuant to art. 396 paragraph 5 Cpp rap. to art. 16 letter a, acquits the defendant Alecu Ioan Niculae, for committing the crime of abuse of office in a qualified form since the act does not exist. Acquits the defendant Popoviciu Gabriel-Aurel, for committing the crimes of complicity in abuse of office in a qualified form and for committing the crime of bribery, since the acts do not exist”, the CAB sentence states.
The other defendants in the file also received an acquittal decision.