Syrian businessman Omar Hayssam brought to Rahova prison in Romania to serve jail time for terrorism

After a brief period when Syrian citizen Omar Hayssam, convicted for terrorism in Romania, was apparently nowhere to be found, and when the court where he was supposed to appear earlier this week did not know of his whereabouts, Hayssam appeared in the custody of the Rahova prison in Bucharest on Tuesday, July 23. He had been transferred to the Rahova prison from an arrest unit whose location was not mentioned. Hayssam got 20 years in jail for terrorism in 2007, soon after managing to leave the country during a medical time off from arrest, and while not being monitored by the authorities. He was brought back to Romania on July 19. Yesterday however (July 23 ), the Prison Administration and the Bucharest Police representatives told the court they did not know of his whereabouts. Hayssam has three court sentences in Romania, 20 years for terrorism, 16 years for fraud, and three years for fraudulent bankruptcy. He will serve the biggest of them, by Romanian law. He is also part of an ongoing trial for fraud, which could bring a fourth conviction. It is not yet certain whether the Syrian, who was brought back to Romania to serve his 20-year jail sentence for having orchestrated the kidnapping of three Romanian journalists in Iraq in 2005, was extradited from Syria. Romanian president Traian Basescu, from whom the first news of Hayssam's return to Romania came early Friday morning (July 19), later on said he could not confirm, nor deny whether the Syrian was brought back based on an extradition mandate, or whether he was indeed found in Syria or elsewhere. As all eyes are on this case - Romania's only terrorism case which led to such a conviction - the Police are saying Hayssam was never in the arrest of the Bucharest Police. However, the president's spokesperson said last week Hayssam was given into the custody of the Romanian Police, and later on the same day, the Internal Affairs Minister Radu Stroe said Hayssam was in fact in the Bucharest Police arrest. Hayssam is a Syrian and Romanian citizen who managed to leave Romania for Syria soon after being freed from preventive arrest on medical grounds back in 2007, when he was finally convicted to 20 years in jail. His escape on a ship which was transporting sheep led to resignations of the chief of intelligence and of the chief prosecutor at the time, for having failed to monitor him after being released on medical grounds. Several doctors afterwards confirmed Hayssam's cancer diagnostic. Two journalists from Prima TV, Sorin Dumitru Miscoci and Marie-Jeanne Ion and one from the daily Romania Libera, Eduard Ovidiu Ohanesian were kidnapped in Baghdad in 2005. Omar Hayssam was found to have staged the kidnapping of the three journalists. Soon after the three were kidnapped, he claimed to have been contacted by the kidnappers, who had asked him for an USD 4 million ransom. The person who organized the kidnapping was Hayssam's friend Mohammad Munaf, who was the three journalists' guide in Baghdad. The Romanians' release was confirmed 55 days after being kidnapped, and after international media had rumored the journalists had been released much earlier with the help of an American commando group. Later on however the journalists confirmed the 55-day kidnapping. In 2008, Mohammad Munaf was sentenced to 10 years in jail, a smaller sentence than Hayssam's, due mainly to his collaboration with the prosecutors. He managed to escape the death penalty in his home country Iraq, where he was also trialed after being arrested in the kidnapping case. According to Romanian media, the chances of Munaf being extradited to Romania are slim.