The judges of the High Court of Cassation and Justice rejected the cassation appeal filed by the former general mayor of the Capital, Sorin Oprescu. With this decision, the sentence to 10 years and 8 months in prison remains final, confirming the decision handed down by the Bucharest Court of Appeal in May 2022, by which he was found guilty of acts of corruption.
Currently, Sorin Oprescu is in Greece, where the Greek authorities’ refusal to extradite him continues to keep him away from serving his sentence. On November 27, the Court of Appeal in Thessaloniki rejected the second extradition request submitted by the Romanian state.
The former mayor was not present at the court hearing, being hospitalized, according to ProTV News. His lawyer cited Oprescu’s poor state of health before the court, arguing that he “he would not be able to take care of his health in prison, let alone in Romanian penitentiaries”.
The Greek court’s decision can be appealed, so the extradition procedure is not definitively closed.
What was Sorin Oprescu convicted for
In 2022, Sorin Oprescu was definitively sentenced to 10 years and 8 months in prison, being accused of receiving a bribe worth 25,000 euros from the former director of the National Penitentiary Administration. The sentence was pronounced in his absence, after he left Romania and took refuge in Greece before the verdict.
The first extradition attempt, formulated in the same year, was rejected by the Greek authorities, who invoked the detention conditions in Romania.
Romanian authorities: conditions in prisons are at European standards
The Minister of Justice, Radu Marinescu, stated that meanwhile the situation in the penitentiary system has changed significantly. According to him, “the detention conditions offered by Romania are at European standards“, and the reason previously cited by the Greek authorities for the refusal of extradition “disappeared”.
The representatives of the Ministry of Justice claim that the recent reforms could facilitate, in the near future, bringing the former general mayor of the Capital to the country.
