Călin Georgescu Picked Up by the Police, Taken for Questioning

Former independent presidential candidate Călin Georgescu was picked up by traffic Police to be taken for questioning, in the context of searches carried out in several counties targeting actions against the constitutional order, public incitement, initiation of a fascist organization, false statements regarding the sources of financing of the electoral campaign, judicial sources told mass media.

George Simion, now at the General Prosecutor’s Office, where he went together with the AUR parliamentarians: “This abuse is closely linked to preventing Mr. Georgescu from completing his candidacy file. It is an abuse of the totalitarian state. We can expect anything from these abusers (…) We will stay here until we see that Georgescu comes out and is released.”

POT President Anamaria Gavrilă also condemned the prosecutors’ action to pick up Călin Georgescu from traffic to take him to the Prosecutor General’s Office where he is to be heard in a case regarding actions against the constitutional order, public incitement, initiation of an organization with a fascist character, and false statements regarding the sources of financing of the electoral campaign.

“Today we were also ready with Mr. Georgescu’s candidacy file, it had to be submitted to the BEC. Călin Georgescu is out of the running. It is beyond words that a candidate who reached the 2nd round is treated in this way like the last criminal, like a drug dealer, like a murderer,” said Anamaria Gavrilă in a live video on Facebook. She called on people to take to the streets to protest against the actions of the prosecutor’s office.

On the other hand, the president of the SOS Romania party, Diana Șoșoacă, declared on Wednesday, upon leaving the consultations with the parties at the Cotroceni Palace, that she did not know about the arrest of Călin Georgescu for questioning. Asked by journalists if she still sees Georgescu as a candidate in the presidential elections, Șoșoacă replied that “I have never seen him as a possible candidate, because of his history and his connections against the Romanian state, with all those paramilitary formations that he created in all the counties.” 

“And, especially, his defense by paid mercenaries. Those mercenaries killed children, they killed women, they killed people, because that is why they are paid in all the theaters of operations,” added the SOS Romania leader.

Diana Șoșoacă also says that “it means that something serious has happened, if that’s the case (it was lifted – ed.). From a legal point of view, if it’s an emergency situation, something like that is required. If they had summoned him and he didn’t respond to the summons… I can’t tell you, because I’m not involved in the case. I can only give you my opinions.“

When journalists told the SOS leader that representatives of the AUR and POT parties went to the Prosecutor General’s Office to support Călin Georgescu, Șoșoacă replied: “It is, I hope, still a free country, where everyone has the right to free expression and opinion, everyone has the right to support whoever they want, everyone has the right to say what they want, and when they break the law they should be held accountable.” “If AUR and POT consider that they have to defend him, let them defend him! It’s their right,” Șoșoacă added.

Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu stated that he does not comment on the decisions of the judiciary, adding that, “given the tense electoral context, the judicial bodies have the duty to present to the public extremely solid evidence in the investigation”.

“I will never comment on a judicial decision or an investigation by prosecutors. Romania is a democracy in which the separation of powers in the state functions fully. The judiciary is independent and the law must be applied regardless of persons, while respecting all the fundamental rights and freedoms of citizens”, Marcel Ciolacu responded to the request of HotNews.ro.

“Given the tense electoral context, the judicial bodies have the duty to present to the public extremely solid evidence in the investigation in which, among dozens of persons, a potential candidate in the May elections is also involved. Only the communication of clear and irreproachably substantiated evidence can determine that this criminal investigation is not diverted into an electoral manifesto of a certain candidate”, added the prime minister.

Elena Lasconi, the opponent who reached the second round of the presidential elections with Călin Georgescu, declared that she trusts the judiciary, and the former independent candidate must answer to the law if the prosecutors have very clear evidence.

Asked if it is a mistake for a candidate to be arrested in the middle of the campaign, Lasconi replied: “The authorities’ mistake would only be if they took him to interrogations and detained him without having evidence. But I don’t think the prosecutors don’t have evidence.”

The USR president stressed that it is already known that Georgescu violated electoral rules in the campaign at the end of last year. “I followed the law to the letter. The expenses were transparent. Everyone knows that Georgescu did not have a fair campaign. He said that he spent 0 lei, we are not children, we know that an electoral campaign cannot be run with 0 lei. The prosecutors are doing their job, I trust the judiciary”, she continued.

Asked whether, once these accusations were made by the prosecutors, Georgescu should be invalidated by the Constitutional Court, she offered the example of Diana Șoșoacă, whose candidacy was invalidated in the fall.

The announcement of Georgescu’s questioning comes as 47 searches are being carried out today at Călin Georgescu’s close associates, including Horațiu Potra, the head of the mercenaries, Georgescu’s bodyguard and a new character who appears in the investigation, the partner of Georgescu’s bodyguard, who allegedly has close ties to the top of the power circles in Moscow. In several images from the investigation, she appears alongside Circassian mercenaries and has posts that show her closeness to the Russians. And Horațiu Potra appears in images in Moscow’s Red Square, where he was allegedly in September, sources from the investigation say. Among the accusations brought against them are: forming a fascist group, but also making false statements regarding the financing of the electoral campaign.