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The parents of the young people who died in the October 30, 2015 Colectiv fire demanded at a hearing at the Bucharest Court this Monday that former Sector 4 mayor Cristian Popescu-Piedone and three officials of the Sector 4 Mayor's Office be ordered to jointly pay moral and material compensations running in the hundreds of millions of euros.
The Bucharest Court began on Monday the final debates in the Colectiv case in the part where former mayor Cristian Popescu-Piedone and Sector 4 Mayor's Office officials Aurelia Iofciu (head of the Commercial Authorization Service), Larisa Luminita Ganea (chief advisor) and Ramona Sandra Motoc (senior point of contact officer) stand accused of issuing permits and business authorisations to two commercial companies in violation of the legal fire protection requirements in force.
Judge Mihai Balanescu invited the lawyers representing the families of the deceased, but also the young people injured in the fire to state their compensation claims. For the injured survivors, the financial claims range from tens of thousands of euros to eight million euros.
The compensation claims for the Colectiv casualties stand at tens of millions of euros for each case.
Given that in the 'Colectiv' case hundreds of civil actions have been brought in the criminal proceedings, Piedone and the Sector 4 Mayor's Office could be ordered to pay hundreds of millions of euros in material and moral compensations.
At the same hearing, an anti-corruption prosecutor demanded that Popescu-Piedone be sentenced to 15 years in prison for abuse of office in connection with the issuing of the business license for the Colective club. He explained that Popescu-Piedone had the obligation to verify if the licensing application had all the necessary approvals - the fire safety authorisation included - attached. The respective document was missing, and neither did the club administrators submit an environmental notice or a building permit.
The prosecutor accused the former mayor of violating two laws on fire protection and of issuing the operating and business license for SC Colectiv Club SRL, although the club did not have the fire safety authorisation.
On May 6, 2016 Popescu-Piedone was prosecuted by DNA on two counts of abuse of office for obtaining undue benefits for a third party while harming the legitimate interests of individuals and of the Bucharest municipality Sector 4. According to the DNA, the crime of abuse in office consists in issuing the operating and business licenses for two trading companies in a way that violated the legal provisions regarding fire safety, including by non-observance of the provisions on follow-up controls after the documents were issued.
DNA argued that the mayor and the Commercial Authorization Service officials had the exclusive competence for issuing the operating and business licenses for trading companies operating as bars, clubs, restaurants.
