The Bucharest Court of Appeal moves for the severance of the Colectiv trial.
In 2015, Romania saw one of its biggest tragedies. A fire caused by fireworks broke out at a Bucharest nightclub on 30th October that year, with 26 people dying on the night as a result and a further 38 in its aftermath, in hospitals in Romania and abroad. It all happened in just a few minutes, after the ceiling and the pillars of the club were quickly engulfed by flames. As they tried to flee the club through the only existing door, the people trampled on one another. The victims include musicians, photographers, journalists and Romanian and foreign students. Some 150 people were also wounded.
The Inspectorate for Emergency Situations, the fire fighters, the police and everyone who was at the site desperately tried to save the young people caught in the fire. However, mistakes were made and the decision-making was chaotic, as no one was prepared for a disaster of this scale. The main shareholder of the club and two associates were arrested. Other inquiries were also conduced later, with the result that various officials from the local administration, including sector mayor Cristian Popescu-Piedone, were indicted. Arrests were also made at the firm that provided the fireworks and at the Inspectorate for Emergency Situations.
A trial began and in December 2019 all the defendants received sentences that included prison time and the payment of damages to the victims amounting to some 50 million euros. Later, the defendants' lawyers appealed the sentences in court so the case is now seeing some changes. The Bucharest Court of Appeal ruled on Monday to split the Colectiv case in two, with the former sector mayor, the local administration officials and the firefighters to be tried separately from the club owners. The court is to decide in autumn if this also entails a change in the legal classification of offences for the former mayor and other defendants, which could result in easier sentences should they be convicted. The trial goes on with respect to the three owners of the club and the technicians who were in charge of the fireworks.
The move to sever the trial was met with discontent by lawyers, who are saying this is an attempt to delay the trial and arguing that the cases were initially severed before the court moved for a joint trial. The plaintiffs in the civil suit - the survivors and families of the victims - protested against this solution in court. Moreover, they condemned in a public letter the judges' move to change the legal classification of the defendants' deeds. They argue that the latter's sentences will be "light and insignificant, disproportionate to the gravity of the acts committed and of their consequences, which would cast a deep shadow on the entire process of justice in Romania". (CM)
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