Detention and proposed arrest

Prosecutors at the Iași Court of Appeal detained a lecturer at the Faculty of Law of the "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" University in Iași on Friday, 23 October 2026. The prosecutor in the case ordered detention for 24 hours and submitted a proposal for preventive arrest lasting 30 days. Prosecutors announced the detention without naming him, but media reports identify him as the son of former justice minister Tudorel Toader, who also served as the university's former rector. Because the lecturer is also a public notary, the request will be heard by a rights and freedoms judge at the Iași Court of Appeal.

The prosecution is investigating him for rape, sexual assault, attempted sexual assault and using his position for sexual purposes. The alleged acts were committed against several female students of the university. Prosecutors say the evidence gathered so far has produced reasonable suspicion that he took advantage of his teaching role and his superior position over the students. These are allegations under investigation, and the people under investigation are presumed innocent throughout the criminal process.

What the students alleged

Two former female students accused the lecturer in November 2025 of making sexual advances in exchange for helping them pass their exams. Both said they had been approached after failing an exam in the first session, and one of them said other students at the faculty might also have been affected. According to an investigation published by the local outlet Reporter de Iași, one student said she gave in to the pressure and had sexual relations with him, first in his office at the university and later at his notary office in central Iași. She later left the Faculty of Law.

Police in Iași opened a criminal case ex officio after the journalistic investigation became public. The police inquiry had started in autumn 2025, and the case has now reached the stage where prosecutors seek a custodial measure.

Earlier university measures

After the first complaints in November 2025, the university's ethics commission opened an inquiry into the case. The faculty's leadership had already decided to suspend his teaching duties until the legal situation was clarified. The Faculty of Law council also voted unanimously to recommend that he refrain from teaching until the matter was resolved. When the allegations were first published, the lecturer declined to comment on them.

The father's response

Tudorel Toader wrote on Facebook on Friday that the case was an attack on him. He said the investigation had been aimed at him rather than his son.

“It is an attack on me, striking at Alexandru!”

He also claimed that a lawyer with criminal cases had encouraged the two students to give statements against his son to ease her own legal position, and that she had sent a journalist to record them. He did not name the lawyer or provide evidence for these claims in the post. He added that the students had been intimidated.

“Without evidence and through intimidation, they have hit at a young man whose two children are waiting for him at home, one of them only a few weeks old.”

He said he trusted that the magistrates would release his son.

What happens next

According to judicial sources cited in local media, the lecturer is to appear before the court on Saturday, 24 October 2026, which will decide whether to grant the preventive arrest request. The timeline of the case so far is shown below.