The Colectiv case is close to a resolution

the colectiv case is close to a resolution The first sentence in the Colectiv trial is expected next Monday.

On the 30th of October this year, Romania commemorated four years since its biggest tragedy in times of peace: 64 people, mostly young people, were killed and 200 injured, one also committing suicide later, in a fire that broke out during a concert at the Colectiv nightclub, which was located in a former factory in Bucharest.


The fire was caused by fireworks lit up during the concert. The sparks touched the foam covering the pillars and walls of the overcrowded club, which only had one exit door. The fire lasted 153 seconds, but it was enough for some spectators to die at the site and for others to stampede and to get hurt by the flames and the smoke on their way out.


For two years, the trial that began in the wake of the tragedy was blocked for procedural reasons, but the judge initially appointed to handle the case eventually retired and was replaced by another in October 2018. The latter promised to bring the case to an end and began holding hearings with dozens of witnesses and victims on a weekly basis. The hearings came to an end on Monday, and the first sentence is expected next Monday, on the 9th of December. The decision of the Bucharest Tribunal judge will not, however, be final.


In any case, prosecutors called for tough sentences of up to 15 years in prison for all those indicted, namely two employees of the Inspectorate for Emergency Situations accused of allowing the club to function despite knowing it did not have a fire licence; the former mayor of the Bucharest sector in which the club was located, Cristian Popescu Piedone, and three employees under him for abuse of office and complicity to abuse of office; the three owners of the club for aggravated manslaughter, serious bodily harm and failure to take the obligatory safety and work measures; as well as the workers who set up the fireworks and their employer. Moreover, the civil part in the trial, namely the families of the dead and the injured, have also demanded huge compensations to the amount of millions of euros. None of those accused has pleaded guilty, asking instead to be acquitted.


Politically speaking, the price for what happened at Colectiv on the 30th of October 2015 was already paid when the government led at the time by the Social Democrat Victor Ponta resigned after pressure from tens of thousands of protesters chanting a slogan that has endured: "Corruption kills". Even so, a survivor of the tragedy four years ago said after the hearings on Monday that someone else should also be on trial, namely the Romanian state. "Things didn't function as they should have and people died as a result, so it's the entire system represented by the Romanian state that should be on trial", he said. 



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Publicat: 2019-12-03 13:50:00
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