Cyprus’s Supreme Court overturned a decision to extradite mining magnate Beny Steinmetz to Romania on Friday, November 3, ruling that he faced a risk of inhumane treatment if sent to jail there to serve a five-year sentence in a corruption case, OCCRP announced.

On December 17, 2020, Benyamin Steinmetz and former political consultant Tal Silberstein were definitively sentenced to 5 years in prison each for constituting an organized criminal group in the Ferma Băneasa case from the High Court of Cassation and Justice.

The damage in the file amounts to over EUR 145 million, over EUR 135 million representing the value of the lands of the former Royal Farm in Băneasa and almost EUR 10 million, the Fundu Sacului forest in Snagov.

In January 2021, Steinmetz was sentenced in Switzerland to 5 years in prison for corruption, but the decision is not final.

iulian@romania-insider.com

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