The Bucharest Court of Appeal upheld DIICOT prosecutors’ challenge and extended Călin Georgescu’s pretrial detention by 30 days, news agency Agerpres reported. The same measure was ordered for businessman Ionel Rusen in the EUR 1.1 million fraud case.
The two will remain in detention from October 29 through November 27. The ruling is final.
The appeals court overturned a Bucharest Tribunal decision issued two days earlier, which had rejected DIICOT’s request for an extension and ordered Călin Georgescu and Ionel Rusen placed under judicial supervision for 60 days.
The lower-court judge had found that prosecutors had not presented new evidence sufficient to justify their continued detention.
“The preventive detention measure concerning the defendants is extended for 30 days, from October 29, 2026, through November 27, 2026, inclusive,” the Bucharest Court of Appeal said in its ruling, as quoted by Agerpres.
Cǎlin Georgescu was brought to court at around 5 p.m. on Wednesday, while several hundred supporters gathered on the steps outside. Some entered the building and chanted outside the courtroom, although the hearing was not open to the public.
The investigation began following a complaint filed by businessman Răzvan Leu, who was invited to participate in a precious-metals transaction requiring a EUR 6 million credit line. The prosecutors allege that Georgescu directed Leu to Rusen, who introduced him to an Italian citizen, presented as the representative of a Swiss bank.
Leu was allegedly asked to provide a EUR 1 million guarantee, of which EUR 100,000 was intended to finance Cǎlin Georgescu’s presidential campaign. He later transferred another EUR 100,000 after being told the credit line could be increased to EUR 15 million.
The financing was never obtained, and Răzvan Leu allegedly did not recover the EUR 1.1 million.
Recently, Cǎlin Georgescu has also been charged in another DIICOT case over allegations that he asked a man to scan his villa in Mogoșoaia for recording devices installed by investigators. In a separate case, prosecutors are investigating allegations that he made a Legionary salute outside a church in Buftea while under judicial supervision.
Following the detention ruling, far-right Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) leader George Simion announced that the party would organize protests.
“What has Călin Georgescu done to make you keep him under arrest? Dictatorships have never ended well,” Simion wrote on Facebook. “In the coming days, we will be in the streets until you stop the repression.”
Cǎlin Georgescu surprisingly finished first in the first round of Romania’s 2024 presidential election, which was subsequently annulled by the Constitutional Court.
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