The mayor of sector 5, Cristian Popescu Piedone, was picked up on Friday from Otopeni Airport, being taken to hearings at DNA in a corruption case, judicial sources told HotNews.ro.
Cristian Popescu PiedonePhoto: Facebook
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There was an arrest warrant in his name, so Piedone was picked up from the airport, from where he was preparing to leave the country, according to the judicial sources quoted.
The mayor of Sector 5 was escorted to the DNA headquarters for questioning.
A few days later, on May 3, the Bucharest Court of Appeal would rule, after several postponements, the final decision in the Collective process, in which Piedone was sentenced in the first instance to 8 years and 6 months in prison for abuse of office in in connection with the tragedy in which 62 people died and another 150 were maimed for life.
The Collective Trial ended on December 21, 2021, and the Bucharest Court of Appeal postponed on April 15 – for the fourth time – the sentencing. The next deadline for the final decision has been set for May 3. The decision would come after more than 5 years of trials, during which time the court became embroiled in proceedings.
The magistrates invoked the “special complexity of the case” and blamed the lawyers for the successive postponements.
At the end of the trial, on December 21, 2021, the defendants’ lawyers requested the payment or application of milder sentences, considering that the prosecutors were wrong when they decided to prosecute their clients, but also the magistrates of the Bucharest Tribunal, when they handed down sentences with execution.
On the other hand, the prosecutors demanded punishments “oriented towards the maximum provided by law” and with execution for the former mayor of Sector 4 of the Capital Cristian Popescu-Piedone, City Hall officials, club owners, two firefighters, two pyrotechnicians and representatives of a fireworks company. , claiming that the social order was “altered” by corruption, and people burned. “We are not talking about two, we are talking about a cemetery,” investigators said.
Since 2020, Piedone has been the mayor of Sector 5, after being mayor of Sector 4 from the 2008 local elections until his resignation on November 4, 2015, following the tragedy in the Colectiv club.
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