Judge Nicolae George Octavian of the Bucharest Military Tribunal announced on Thursday that he would deliver the first-instance ruling on June 11 in the August 10 case, in which former heads of the Gendarmerie are being tried over the violent crackdown on protesters during the August 2018 demonstration.
At Thursday's hearing, the court was due to hear the defendants' final statements, but colonel Gheorghe Sebastian Cucos and colonel Catalin Sindile, as well as their lawyers, failed to appear in court in an attempt to obtain a postponement of the proceedings, agerpres reports.
The only former Gendarmerie chief present was Laurentiu Cazan, who stated that, even now, eight years after the incidents in Victoriei Square, he still believes he acted correctly.
At the end of the hearing, the judge announced that the ruling would be delivered on June 11.
On Wednesday, the prosecutor requested prison sentences for the three former Gendarmerie chiefs, with additional penalties for aggravating circumstances.
Thus, the prosecutor requested custodial sentences for colonel Gheorghe Sebastian Cucos and colonel Catalin Sindile, while for Laurentiu Cazan a more lenient sentence was sought, namely a suspended prison sentence and community service, given his conduct during the trial - he was the only one of the three to give testimony before the court - as well as the fact that one of the offences is now time-barred.
In the case of another seven gendarmes sent to trial for abusive conduct, the offences have also become statute-barred.
In the prosecutor's view, even if some offences are now time-barred, the gendarmes should still pay moral damages to protesters who suffered as a result of the authorities' forceful intervention.
In August 2023, former Gendarmerie chiefs were indicted by prosecutors from the Military Section of the Prosecutor General's Office in connection with the August 10, 2018 protest, with 312 injured parties joining the proceedings as civil claimants.
Retired colonel Gheorghe Sebastian Cucos, former head of the Romanian Gendarmerie, colonel Laurentiu Cazan, former deputy head of the Bucharest Gendarmerie and currently an officer within the institution, and colonel Catalin Sindile, former first deputy head of the Romanian Gendarmerie, are charged with abuse of office.
In the same case, another 13 officers and non-commissioned officers from the Bucharest Gendarmerie were sent to trial: retired colonel Laurentiu Ciobanu Cristian, former battalion commander within the Bucharest Gendarmerie Directorate, colonel Razvan Catalin Popescu, colonel Marian Ion Zavoianu, lieutenant-colonel Adrian Costel Dumitru, major Luca Moldoveanu, captain Marius Daniel Mihai, retired adjutant warrant officer Alin Belecciu, master sergeant Marian Cristian Birsan, adjutant warrant officer Cristian Bolat, chief adjutant warrant officer George Buzatu, adjutant warrant officer Florea Carmocanu, retired chief adjutant warrant officer Bardahan Pavel Custrin and retired master sergeant George Constantin Zamfir.
They are charged with abusive conduct or complicity in that offence.
According to the investigation, colonel Laurentiu Cazan, as commander of the operation, together with Gheorghe Cucos and Ionut Sindile, as coordinators of the same operation, improperly fulfilled their official duties and unlawfully ordered the gendarmerie forces under their command to intervene by force to disperse the entire crowd of protesters present in Victoriei Square - approximately 30,000 people - an intervention they subsequently led.
Prosecutors argue that the forceful intervention by gendarmes against the entire group of protesters in Victoriei Square on August 10, 2018 was unlawful and unjustified, and that the use by law enforcement of equipment such as rubber batons, protective shields, tear gas sprays, stun and tear gas grenades, high-capacity spray devices and cartridges may be regarded as "inhuman" and "degrading" treatment.
