March 6, 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, Ms. Laura Codruţa Kövesi, granted the request submitted by prosecutors from the Prosecutor’s Office attached to the Bucharest Tribunal and, pursuant to Article 209 Para. 4¹ of the Criminal Procedure Code, ordered that the case concerning the shooting incident that occurred on March 5, 2012 be taken over by the prosecutors from the Criminal Investigation and Criminalistics Section.

The preliminary investigations showed that a man fired several shots in a hairdressing salon in Bucharest, which resulted in the death of two persons and the wounding of other six.

The reasons that determined the taking-over order issued by the Prosecutor General of the Prosecutor’s Office attached to the High Court of Cassation and Justice concerned the complexity of the case and the possibility to designate prosecutors form the Criminal Investigation and Criminalistics Section to deal exclusively with this case.

A task team formed of two prosecutors, namely the Chief Prosecutor of the Criminal Investigation and Criminalistics Section of the Prosecutor’s Office attached to the High Court of Cassation and Justice, Mr. Valentin Şelaru, and another prosecutor as well as judicial police officers from the “Homicide Unit of the Bucharest Police”.

Today, March 6, 2012, another team will be sent on site to investigate the ballistic aspects.

The first stage of the investigations carried out on site was finished during the night between March 5 and 6, 2012. The video surveillance systems seized will be analyzed by experts and the bullets will be subject to ballistic tests. 5 persons were identified and heard in the case (other than the injured persons) who stated explicitly certain aspects relating to the actual circumstances.

The person who opened fire on the victims, Mr. Gheorghe VLĂDAN, was heard (he agreed to make a full handwritten statement). He was taken into custody during the night between March 5 and 6, 2012 for 24 hours, starting 1:30 AM.

According to the standard procedure in such cases, a medico-legal psychiatric assessment will be ordered.

Prosecutors will decide the procedural measures to be taken in this case by the end of the day.

We will keep the public informed about the progress of the investigation.