France refuses to extradite fugitive Paul of Romania in final decision

A court in France recently issued a final decision in which it rejected to extradite Paul of Romania, who is wanted in the country for the illegal restitution of the Baneasa Royal Farm case.

The French court reached its decision by citing the illegal composition of the Romanian judiciary panel, according to Romanian justice minister Alina Gorghiu. It highlighted that one of the judges in Romania who had sentenced Paul to three years and four months in jail had not taken the oath upon taking office.

Minister Gorghiu argued that the French court exceeded its competencies in the recent ruling.

"This fugitive is just as important as any other fugitive from Romania. In the procedure, the Ministry of Justice was not passive at any moment. We sent all the requested documents in time, as well as the situation of the detention conditions, where he was to be incarcerated, which were in accordance with European standards,” she said, cited by Digi24.

“We have approached the Ministry of Justice in France. We communicated the perplexity of the Romanian authorities and requested the identification of a solution. And I asked my counterpart to check together with the competent bodies the human and procedural errors in this case. The Ministry of Justice has made all the necessary steps," stated the press release from the Ministry of Justice.

Paul of Romania’s father, Carol Mircea Grigore, born in 1920 in Romania, was considered the illegitimate son of Carol II, king of Romania from 1930 until his abdication in 1940 in favor of his younger son, Mihai I. Paul, in turn, was never recognized as a member of the royal family by Mihai, the last king of Romania, who died in 2017.

Paul Philipe of Romania was the subject of a European arrest warrant issued on December 18, 2020, a day after he was definitively sentenced in Romania to three years and four months in prison for the illegal restitution of the Baneasa Royal Farm case. 18 people were convicted in the case, among them the Israeli businessmen Tal Silberstein and Beny Steinmetz. The damages caused to the state was estimated by prosecutors at EUR 145 million.

Paul of Romania was provisionally arrested on June 27, 2022, in France, pending the execution of the European arrest warrant issued by the Romanian judicial authorities.

(Photo source: Inquam Photos | Octav Ganea)