Nicu?or Constantinescu, the suspended president of Constan?a County Council, has been identified and arrested by police in Turkey.
He is to be presented before magistrates in order to be confirmed the mandate of arrest emitted by the authorities in Romania.
According to Romanian police officials, Nicu?or Contantinescu (photo) was held on Tuesday by the police in Istanbul.
“Ankara Interpol was not officially informed by the police in Istanbul and therefore, they did not inform us. Once we have reported them the information in the media, they have checked and it seems that he was detained yesterday by the police in Istanbul. Officially, nothing has been confirmed, only by phone,” said the Romanian police officials quoted by Agerpres.
Before going to Turkey, where has been staying for over a week, the suspended president of Constanta County Council has been in the US. The request for the extradition of Nicu?or Constantinescu was rejected by the authorities in the United States. On September 26, Prime Minister Victor Ponta was saying that the Justice Ministry has taken all reasonable steps in the case of Nicu?or Constantinescu, but US law is different from the Romanian one.
At the beginning of September, Nicu?or Constantinescu sent a memo to the US general attorney, Eric Holder Jr., in which he claims that the Romanian justice is controlled by the National Anti-corruption Direction (DNA) and that he demands the rejection of any request for arrest reaching the US on his behalf.
Nicu?or Constantinescu, investigated by DNA in several files, has spent some months in the US for prostate cancer treatment.
Bucharest Court disposed Constantinescu’s arrest on July 23, following a proposal made ??by DNA after the media has published images showing him smoking on the terrace of a restaurant in New York. The decision was contested at Bucharest Court of Appeal. Subsequently, the Court of Appeal maintained the decision regarding Constantinescu’s arrest, showing that his defense did not present credible medical evidence proving that “the defendant was being hospitalized in severe condition in a New York hospital,” at the moment of DNA request. On August 29, Bucharest Court of Appeal has admitted a litigation in annulment filed by the DNA prosecutors, deciding that Bucharest Court must emit an European mandate of arrest on Nicusor Constantinescu’s name and to put him under international prosecution.
Constantinescu was prosecuted in three criminal files. He is charged with not providing financing for the Regional Military Centre in Constanta, with not complying with the Court of Accounts’ control and with illegally land assigning. The ex- head of Constanta County Council is also investigated in another file, being charged with bribery and illegally weapon holding.