20.08.2012

PRESS RELEASE

The Public Information and Press Relations Bureau within the Prosecutor’s Office attached to the High Court of Cassation and Justice is authorized to bring to public knowledge the following:

The Prosecutor General of the Prosecutor’s Office attached to the High Court of Cassation and Justice, in accordance with the provisions of art. 209 par. 4¹ of the Criminal Procedure Code ordered the takeover of the case concerning VLAD NICOLAE from the Prosecutor’s Office attached to the Ilfov Tribunal, to the Section of Criminal Investigation and Criminalistics within the Prosecutor’s Office attached to the High Court of Cassation and Justice. Investigations are being conducted against VLAD NICOLAE for having committed the crime of murder in the first degree.

The facts show that in the evening of 15.08.2012, around 20:30 hours, the defendant VLAD NICOLAE approached the victim (Japanese citizen) in the compounds of the Henri Coandă Airport, offering his help in finding a taxicab. Then, the defendant got in the cab together with the victim, but they got off after a short distance, in an area in which the road is bordered, on both sides, by woods. They were seen in that place by the cab driver, after approximately 2 minutes, on the other side of the road, and, two days after, in that same place, the body of the victim was discovered.

The takeover of the case file by order of the Prosecutor General of the Prosecutor’s Office attached to the High Court of Cassation and Justice had to do with the complexity of the case, with the fact that the victim is a foreigner, which requires correspondence with the embassy, as well as with the circumstance that the data gathered in the case led to the indication that the defendant VLAD NICOLAE is assumedly accused of having committed several violent acts in several counties. The necessity to expeditiously solve the case adds to these circumstances.

Up to this stage of the investigations, on 18.08.2012 the prosecutors issued a proposal for the provisional arrest of the defendant VLAD NICOLAE for a duration of 29 days. Also, an investigation of the crime scene was carries out, witnesses were questioned, the victim was identified, an autopsy of the body was made and a DNA analysis was ordered, which is to be done in the days to come.

Any new information coming out in the course of the investigations will be brought to the knowledge of the public opinion.