The trial of former presidential candidate and far-right, pro-Russian politician Călin Georgescu can begin, according to a decision by the Bucharest Court of Appeal communicated on Thursday, April 2. Georgescu is accused of complicity in an attempted coup d’état initiated by mercenary Horațiu Potra and 21 other individuals.
In the decision, the court said the indictment for “actions against the constitutional order” was drawn up legally.
Călin Georgescu is also being tried in another case, for legionary propaganda.
According to prosecutors, Georgescu and Potra met on December 7, 2024, one day after the Constitutional Court decided to annul the presidential elections, in the Ilfov locality of Ciolpani, where they discussed a plan according to which Potra and his mercenaries with military training were to create chaos in Bucharest.
“The two defendants discussed a plan according to which the second defendant, together with people from his circle with military training or operational capabilities specific to military training, were to carry out violent actions of a subversive nature, with the role of diverting the peaceful character of the protest actions into demonstrations characterized by violence on December 8, 2024, in the municipality of Bucharest,” the indictment said, cited by Biziday.
The violent demonstrations aimed to “change the constitutional order or to hinder or prevent the exercise of state power.”
On the night of December 7 to 8, 2024, police set up checkpoints in the areas of Baloteşti–Săftica, Ilfov County, and Măneşti and Corneşti, Dâmboviţa County, as well as in Bucharest, stopping and checking Potra’s group. They found folding knives, daggers, long-bladed knives, telescopic batons, pepper spray, brass knuckles, axes and axe handles, pistols, and pyrotechnic materials from the category of the most dangerous, with the potential to produce powerful explosions that could have caused immense damage, serious injuries, and death.
In February, a court ruled that the mercenaries are to remain in preventive arrest.
Călin Georgescu is identified in the investigation as the intellectual author of the entire plan to take over the levers of power. He “benefited during the electoral campaign as well as before it” from Potra’s support, prosecutors say.
Georgescu is also being tried for legionary propaganda. Judges definitively rejected all appeals filed by the politician’s lawyers at the preliminary chamber stage and have definitively established that this trial can begin as well.
(Photo source: Inquam Photos | Octav Ganea)
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