The lawsuit in which Gabriel Oprea was sued in the file of the luxury car bought by DIPI and used in personal interest will resume from the very beginning.
The decision was taken on Wednesday and is motivated by the retirement of one of the judges in the panel, digi24.ro reports.
Thus, all the witnesses and defendants will be heard all over again.
The next hearings in this file are set for mid-October.
The magistrates of the Supreme Court have already ruled to resume the proceedings in the files of Liviu Dragnea and Călin Popescu Tăriceanu.
These decisions were made as a result of two ECHR judgments. These are the decisions in the cases Cutean vs. Romania and Beraru vs. Romania. The ECHR decisions on the continuity of the panel of judges have been invoked as a result of the fact that Judge Ana Maria Dascălu is no longer part of the panel because she has retired.
Similar decisions are also expected in the files of former MPs Dan Şova and Sebastian Ghita.
All these court cases take place at the same level, which included judge Ana Maria Dascălu, who will retire.
Former deputy premier and Interior minister Gabriel Oprea was indicted by the anti-corruption prosecutors on May 11, 2016 in the file related to the purchase of a car from the budget of the Department for Intelligence and Internal Protection (DIPI).
The ex-deputy PM was informed that prosecutors were going to seize his goods to recover the prejudice caused in the file where he faces charges of abuse of office.
Prosecutors claim that on July 13, 2015, Gabriel Oprea, as Interior minister, with the help of the former head of the Department for Intelligence and Internal Protection (DGIPI), senior Police quaestor Nicolae Gheorghe and Pavel Gabriel-Nicolae, head of the Legal department, ordered to supplement DIPI’s budget with RON 410,000 and approved the purchase of an Audi A8 vehicle “with the alleged purpose to ensure the dignitaries’ protection.”
Anti-corruption prosecutors announced they had seized several buildings and plots of land in Bucharest, Ilfov and Giurgiu, belonging to Gabriel Oprea, Nicolae Gheorghe and Gabriel-Nicolae Pavel, all covering the damage of RON 410,000.
The anti-corruption prosecutors said that during August-October 2015, ex-Interior minister Oprea exclusively benefitted of the car, while the purchase of the car violated the legal provisions, which restrict such investments out of the operative funds of the Interior Minister strictly to criminal prosecution actions of the corruption crimes.