31 October 2015

PRESS RELEASE

The Public Information and Media Relations Office 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 ordered, on the 31^st of October 2015, by virtue of the provisions of art. 325 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, that the case on the fire which broke out in the Colectiv Club located in Bucharest resulting in the death of several persons and the bodily injury of others be taken over by the Section of Criminal Investigation and Criminalistics within the Prosecutor’s Office attached to the High Court of Cassation and Justice from the Prosecutor’s Office attached to the Bucharest Tribunal.

The reasons that the transfer is based upon have to do with the complex nature of the case triggered by the circumstances in which the fire broke out, by its serious consequences and after realizing that in order to complete the criminal investigations it is necessary to carry out numerous actions of criminal investigation with the implication of central structures of other authorities, as well as to reassign additional logistical resources.

A team of prosecutors of the Section of criminal investigation and criminalistics – the Bureau of criminalistics participates, together with troops of policemen working for the Romanian Police General Inspectorate – the Criminal Investigations Division and the Service for Homicide of the Bucharest Police General Directorate, in the crime scene investigations.

The first verifications and actions initiated led to the conclusion that on the night of October 30^th 2015, during a rock concert, a fire broke out in a building located at 7 Tăbăcarilor Street, 4^th Sector, which resulted in the death of several persons and the bodily injury of others.

We will keep the public opinion informed as the investigations progress.