1 November 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:

In order to continue the investigations in the case dealing with the fire which broke out in the “Colectiv” Club located in Bucharest, which resulted in the death of several persons and the bodily injury of others, complex activities were carried out so as to shed light to the occurrences in which the events took place on 30.10.2015.

The activities of identification of the deceased persons who had been taken to the “Mina Minovici” National Forensic Institute were completed, all the 26 persons having been identified; the forensic autopsies ordered by the prosecutor were also conducted.

As regards the persons taken to the 12 hospitals, the identity of 38 persons was precisely established, while the specific activities to determine the identity of 29 persons are underway.

The crime scene investigation continues and it is conducted by a team made up of prosecutors of the Section of Criminal Investigation and Criminalistics, judicial police officers of the Bucharest Police General Directorate – Service of Homicide, the Romanian Police General Inspectorate (I.G.P.R.) – the Criminal Investigations Directorate, forensic experts of the National Forensic Institute within the I.G.P.R., as well as of the Forensic Service of the Bucharest Police General Inspectorate. In this activity which will go on for the following days were also involved representatives of the First Responder Service, of the Bucharest Labour Territorial Service and pyrotechnical experts.

New material pieces of evidence were secured and they are to be used in clarifying the circumstances in which the events of 30.10.2015 took place.

Also, policemen of the Bucharest Police General Directorate were delegated to seize from the offices of several public and private institutions documents deemed as useful in settling the case.

The police officers of the Homicide Service working for the Bucharest Police and the Criminal Investigations Directorate within the I.G.P.R. continue the witness hearing at the Bucharest Police headquarters under the coordination of prosecutors of the Prosecutor’s Office attached to the High Court of Cassation and Justice.

The health status of the persons taken to the hospital units is being checked so as to determine which of these persons can be heard.

Tomorrow we will inform the public opinion as to the activities the authorities conducted.

We mention that the initiation of the criminal investigation and the setting in motion of the criminal action are stages of the criminal procedure regulated by the Code of Criminal Procedure, meant to create the procedural framework necessary to gather the evidence, activities which cannot, under any circumstances, breach the principle of the presumption of innocence.

We want to thank the media representatives who proved real partners in keeping the public informed without delay and for the help they gave in establishing data useful to the investigations.