The head of the Romanian Gendarmerie to be replaced

The Gendarmerie chief, Cătălin Ionuț Sindile, will be replaced by the chief inspector of Craiova Gendarmerie, Constantin Florea, sources within the Interior Ministry told mass media on Monday.

In September, the Prosecutor General’s Office announced that the head of the Romanian Gendarmerie, Cătălin Sindile, his deputy, Sebastian Cucoş, Laurentiu Cazan, chief or Bucharest Gendarmerie and Mihai Chirică, state secretary with the Interior Ministry, are prosecuted for complicity to abuse of office and complicity to improper participation in abusive behavior in continued form in the file on the violence during the August 10, 2018 protests. In May this year, military prosecutors extended charges against Sindile, Cucos and Chirica.

Cătălin Ionuț Sindile was designated to take over the helm of the Romanian Gendarmerie on August 15, 2018, immediately after the scandal prompted by the violent intervention of the gendarmes against protesters.

Sindile, aged 41, is born in Teleorman county, graduated the Police Academy, gendarmes class, in 2000.

The future chief of the Gendarmerie, 53-year-old Constantin Florea, is currently running the “Mihai Bravul” Gendarmes Inspectorate in Craiova and graduated the National Defence College and the National Intelligence College within the “Mihai Viteazul” National Intelligence Academy in Bucharest.

During 2005-2009, Florea was deputy commander of the “Fratii Buzesti” Gendarmes Unit in Craiova and he was previously deputy chief commander and the chief of staff of the Gendarmes Command Dolj.

One year after the Diaspora rally on August 10, the file on the violent clashes is still dragging. Military prosecutors have declined the file to the Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) on July 1 this year.