Archbishop Teodosie remains under judicial control

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Judge Cristian Deliorga of the Constanţa Court of Appeals has rejected on Tuesday the request to cancel the measure of judicial control, filed on Monday by Archbishop of Tomis, Teodosie Petrescu, during the first court hearing of the trial in which he is accused of committing some corruption deeds and fraud with European funds for agriculture.

The decision is not final and may be challenged to the High Court of Cassation and Justice of Romania (ICCJ – Supreme Court, our note), realitatea.net reports.

Also, the Constanta Court of Appeals decided on Monday, at the first term of the trial, the postponement of the trial on October 2 for lack of full procedure.

On leaving the courtroom on Monday, the Archbishop of Tomis said that it was all right that the trial had begun in this file, because he would prove his innocence.

Lawyer Maria Vasii announced that she had filed a request for the administration of new evidence and documents proving the non-involvement and exoneration of the high hierarch of the accusations brought to him.

“Today we had the first term of the lawsuit, unfortunately we did not have proceedings with one of the defendants. We are waiting to file the statements, to file the evidence, and we trust that the real situation will be established, namely that there was no fraud with European funds. We are waiting for the final moment of the lawsuit when there will be only one solution – of acquittal. (…) The next hearing was set for October 2,” lawyer Maria Vasii said.

On May 30, the ICCJ rejected the DNA request to set the home arrest measure for Archbishop Teodosie (Teodosie Petrescu) to replace judicial control. On May 22, the Constanta Court of Appeal rejected the same request.

Teodosie is prosecuted for fraud in the process of obtaining European money. According to the prosecutors, the prelate made false statements in which he claimed to use certain plots of land for agriculture.

Archbishop Teodosie was indicted on February 3, under judicial control, by the DNA Constanta prosecutors. The prelate is accused of using false statements to obtain agricultural subsidies from APIA. The damage in this case was nearly RON 1.4 million.

In the same file were also indicted Beca Stere, Bogdan Petrisor Malaxa, Gheorghe Nadoleanu, Ciprian Ioan Cojocaru, mandatory for the Tomis Archbishop, and Stefan Aurelian.

In early November last year, Archbishop Teodosie sparked a wave of controversy after he went to the police along with 30 priests as bodyguards.

The ‘black guard’ of priests was necessary, according to the Archdiocese, after the Archbishop had been ‘abused verbally and physically’. After a few days, Archbishop Teodosie went again to the police with the priests accompanying him.

Teodosie Petrescu, Archbishop of Tomis, was placed on October 16, 2016 under judicial control by the DNA for 60 days.

Teodosie was charged with bribe taking and use in bad faith of documents or false statements, inaccurate or incomplete, in order to unlawfully get European funds.

Archbishop Teodosie is accused that, along with others, used fake documents to the Agency for Payments and Intervention in Agriculture (A.P.I.A.) in order to receive European funds.

The suspects said they use certain agricultural areas for different crops of vines, but starting in 2010, on those agricultural areas there were not really such crops. In this way, they obtained a total of RON 1,356,973 (approx. EUR 300,000) from the EU budget.

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