Bucharest court orders house arrest for Călin Georgescu, decision not final

Tribunal orders house arrest

The Bucharest Tribunal ordered house arrest for Călin Georgescu, the former presidential candidate who is currently in preventive detention in the capital. The Tribunal was scheduled to rule on Monday, 9 November, on the request to replace the preventive arrest with house arrest or judicial control. The measure requested by his lawyers is milder than the one currently applied to him. The ruling is not final, and the Court of Appeal could return the Tribunal's decision for a fourth consecutive time. DIICOT prosecutors are expected to file a challenge against the Tribunal's decision.

Prosecutors' argument and the surveillance mandate

Prosecutors cited an alleged attempt to destroy surveillance equipment in the family home as criminal conduct and as the main argument for extending the preventive arrest. Cristela Georgescu, the wife of Călin Georgescu, disputes this in a video posted on his Facebook account. She says that neither the family nor its lawyers received the document officially, and that they only learned of its contents through the press. She argues that the surveillance mandate covered only public spaces. She put it this way:

“The surveillance mandate authorised intercepting and photographing us only in public spaces, not in our home.”

Questions about the court's reasoning

She says that page 29 of the Court of Appeal's reasoning finds that the new IT charges do not reach the threshold of reasonable suspicion needed to justify the preventive measure. She asks how a new criminal file fits with a mandate limited to public spaces, and whether such devices existed in the home at all. She also accuses the press of publishing a selective version of documents that reached it before the defence. On whether that selectivity was deliberate, she said:

“Whether it was intentional or not, I leave it to you to judge.”

The Court of Appeal's ruling and any challenge from DIICOT prosecutors remain pending.