Runaway investor opposes extradition to Romania

Former MP and runaway Sebastian Ghita said on Friday during the hearings at a Belgrade court that he opposes the extradition to Romania. He argued that he is politically persecuted in the country. His lawyer asked for the blocking of the extradition procedure and the transfer to home arrest, according to the Serbian state news agency Tanjug. Serbian justice minister told Mediafax on Friday that the institution would decide whether or not to extradite Sebastian Ghita after the Belgrade court, where Ghita was heard, determines whether the conditions to bring him to Romania are met. Ghita’s hearing at the Belgrade court on Friday was not public. The former MP will be heard on Monday (today) through a videoconference at Romania’s High Court of Cassation and Justice in the Ponta-Blair case, involving former Prime Minister Victor Ponta. Sebastian Ghita was located and arrested in Belgrade in mid-April. He is being prosecuted in five criminal cases in Romania. The investor disappeared on December 21 last year after breaking the terms of the judicial control, and the national police put out an APB (all-points bulletin) and alerted border checkpoints. On January 10, the supreme court issued a European arrest warrant on the name of Sebastian Ghita. He was internationally followed and wanted by Interpol. Runaway investor to be brought back to Romania after courts check the extradition’s legality editor@romania-insider.com