Head of Romania's Directorate for Organised Crime and Terror Investigation (DIICOT) Daniel Horodniceanu on Thursday said no letters rogatory have been completed for the UK in a case of false representation by British Sky News journalists, because cooperation with British authorities is quite hard to get.
"There has been no outcome so far, which worries us all because two months have already passed and pre-trial measures have been ordered for the defendants in Romania, which seems a bit unfair, given that they did not act alone. Unfortunately, cooperation with Brutish authorities is quite hard to get. Cooperation with Brutish colleagues is harder to get than cooperation with other colleagues from Europe, and that will get even harder after the Brexit," Horodniceanu said at the DIICOT main office.
He said data in his possession indicate that the case has reached the Home Office and a reply is awaited, but if the response does not come, international demarches will continue.
According to DIICOT, in early July 2016, Aurelian Szanto, a Romanian citizen residing in the UK for several years, was contacted by phone by a British journalist who asked him to work as a translator for the Sky News channel. The journalist told him he intended to make a documentary on arms dealers, asking him to find people who would demonstrate firearms. Also Szanto said he cannot demonstrate military weapons, only hunting weapon legally possessed by one of his friends in Romania, the journalist agreed. Szanto got in touch with his friend Attila-Csaba Pantics, who agreed to make a demo together with his cousin Levente Pantics.
The prosecutors also claimed that the British journalists offered Szanto 2,000 de euro for the "journalistic investigation," of which he kept 1,000 euro. The remaining 1,000 euro was to be shared by Attila Pantics and Levente Pantics.
The reportage was shot on July 31, with Attila-Csaba Pantics, Levente Pantics and Aurelian Szanto cast as arms dealers with their heads covered ski masks.
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