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Under a final and binding sentence, the Bucharest Court of Appeal on Tuesday sentenced Syrian Omar Hayssam to 24 years and four months in prison for economic improprieties under a court case called "Manhattan," built by the Directorate for Organised Crime and Terror Investigation (DIICOT).
In the same case, Hayssam's brother Mohamad Omar was sentenced to 22 years in prison, while Hayssam's brother-in-law was sentenced to three years and four months in prison, immediately servable, in a merit trial.
Viorel Vasile Mafteuca was handed a two-year-in-prison sentence, while the prosecution of Doina Farladanschi ended because of a statute of limitations.
Hayssam, along with his brother Mohamad Omar, his brother-in-law Mihai Nasture and two business partners - Viorel Vasile Mafteuca and Doina Farladanschi - had been sent to court on October 2012 by DIICOT prosecutors.
According to DIICOT, the five set up a criminal ring to act premeditatedly and in a planned manner to stop repayment of loans and to switch the assets of Bucovina Mineral Water SA and Rio Soft Drinks to the ownership of other companies making up the Manhattan group of companies.
The prosecutors claim that Hayssam and his accomplices took out bank loans on behalf of the two companies - the Rio soft drink factory of Timisoara and the Bucovina mineral water and soft drinks bottling factory of Vatra Dornei - to be used by real or bogus companies of the Manhattan group of companies.
They put the damage from financial improprieties at 78.4 million lei; the damage from tax evasion at 4,171,261.86 US dollars from tax evasion; the damage from money laundering at 17.3 million lei, and the total damage at 20 million euros.
Romanian courts have so far handed Hayssam sentences in four cases: 20 years in prison for the kidnapping of Romanian journalists in Iraq; 16 years in prison in the "Volvo Truck" case; three years in jail in the "Foresta Nehoiu" case as well as two years in prison for illegal entry.
He managed to flee Romania in 2006, but he was captured and brought back to Romania in 2013.
