Former DIICOT chief, Alina Bica, reportedly left for Costa Rica

Former Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) chief, Alina Bica, prosecuted in several files, has left for Costa Rica and has not showed up in trials, judicial sources have said on Tuesday.

According to the sources, Alina Bica did not arrive on Monday at the High Court of Cassation and Justice (ICCJ – Supreme Court) in the lawsuit in which she is investigated along with former Minister Adriean Videanu, and her lawyer announced in court that she has left for Costa Rica where she intended to work as lawyer.

Alina Bica did not attend the trial at the beginning of December 2017, and lawyers then filed in court medical records confirming that she had suffered an accident in Spain, the sources said.

The former DIICOT chief is not banned to leave Romania.

Alina Bica has been convicted in two criminal files, but the rulings are not final.

Thus, in November 2016, she was sentenced by the Supreme Court to four years in prison with execution for committing the crime of favouring the perpetrator. In the same file, former Minister Adriean Videanu was acquitted for complicity to abuse of office.

Adriean Videanu, Dorin Cocos, Alin Cocos, Alina Bica and her former adviser Florentin Mihailescu were arrested on January 31, 2015 following the ICCJ decision. The decision was made in Alina Bica’s disjoint case of unlawful compensation from ANRP (Agency for Property Restitution).

Also, in January 2017, Alina Bica was sentenced to 3 years and 6 months imprisonment with execution for committing the crime of favouring the perpetrator, in connection with interventions to close a file involving businessman Horia Simu.