Bucharest Court invalidates witness testimonies in coup attempt case against Călin Georgescu, Horațiu Potra

The Bucharest Court of Appeal has asked the General Prosecutor’s Office to inform it within five days whether it maintains the decision to send to trial or seeks the return of the case file in which former presidential candidate Călin Georgescu and mercenary leader Horațiu Potra are accused of having attempted to destabilise Romania. In a ruling issued on March 9, the preliminary chamber judge excluded from the evidence 17 statements given as witnesses by members of the Potra group who were later indicted in the same case.

The court ruled that the “witness’s right to silence and non-self-incrimination” had been violated, as the individuals had been questioned as witnesses before later acquiring the status of defendants, Hotnews.ro reported.

As a result, all 17 testimonies provided by these individuals are considered invalid as evidence in the trial.

Georgescu and Potra were sent to trial in September 2025, together with 20 other defendants, on charges related to actions against the constitutional order.

According to prosecutors, Georgescu and Potra met on December 7, 2024, a day after Romania’s Constitutional Court annulled the presidential election, in the Ilfov locality of Ciolpani. Investigators claimed the two discussed a plan under which Potra and members of his mercenary group, who have military training, were to create chaos in Bucharest.

Prosecutors describe Georgescu in the investigation as the intellectual author of the alleged plan to seize control of state institutions.

(Photo source: Inquam Photos/Octav Ganea)