Eight officers of Bucharest Police Precinct 16 have been definitively convicted by the Bucharest Court of Appeal, being found guilty of kidnapping and torturing two young people during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Four officers were sentenced to 5 years and 8 months in prison.

The heaviest punishment was meted out to Viorel Constantin Seicaru, a former leader of the police union. He was sentenced to 5 years and 8 months in prison (at the trial he had received 9 years and 4 months) for committing the crimes of unlawful deprivation of liberty, torture, instigation to unlawful deprivation of liberty, abusive conduct.

The other three officers who received final and binding sentences with execution received lower sentences than the trial court, after some of the facts hit the statute of limitation.

Also, four other officers were handed suspended community sentences. All of them are prohibited from holding positions that involve the exercise of state authority, for various periods.

Against another policeman involved in this case, sent to trial for aiding and abetting, the criminal trial was terminated as a result of the statute of limitations.

The decision is final.

According to the indictment, on August 31, 2020, around 01:00hrs - 01:30hrs, Precinct 16 officers, accompanied by three gendarmes, set up a roadblock on Calea Serban Voda, and they were approached by two young people who reproached them for not wearing protective masks in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In response, one of the officers swore at the two young men, while other officers, without identifying themselves or asking for their data or identity documents, immobilised them on the ground and handcuffed them.

One of the young men was put into a police van, where he was hit several times with fists, after which he was taken to a field in the Dealul Arman Road area, near Jilava, where the police beat and tortured him.

Two of the policemen pulled him out of the car, laid him on the ground and began hitting him with batons and feet, while two policewomen and another officer watched impassively as the violence unfolded.

'They were hitting me over my body, in the rib area, hands, fingers and toes. The officers who were hitting me were men. One of the young policemen took off my sneakers, after which the agents hit my feet with their side-handle batons. I asked them to stop, and the older policeman replied that if I didn't apologize, they wouldn't stop. I then asked why I should apologize. I remember that they turned me on my stomach as well, continuing to hit me and, at one point, they took out my handcuffs. In order for them to stop, I asked them to forgive me, as I was practically obliged by them to do,' reads the statement given by the victim to the prosecutors.

After beating him, one of the policemen allegedly urinated on the young man, telling him at the same time: 'See, man, what the Romanian Police can do?', according to investigators.

Another officer took the victim's phone from his pocket and threw it into the bushes, near a railroad in the area, after which he took out a packet of tobacco, which he spilled over his face. The policemen then got into the cars and left, leaving the young man alone on that vacant land.

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At the same time, the other young man also suffered. Thus, the investigators say, after handcuffing him, the policemen locked him in a special vehicle, over two car rims stored in the back seat, after which they sprayed tear gas spray in the passenger compartment of the car. Subsequently, the man was transported without any legal justification to the Zetari area of Bucharest, where he was abandoned on a dark street.

After staying on the spot for a while to recover from the effect of the tear gas spray, the young man tried to orient himself, to figure out where he was. He followed the tram lines and entered a store to ask for direction to Soseaua Giurgiului. On the way, he repeatedly called his friend, who finally answered and told him what had happened to him. At the same time, he explained that it was precisely thanks to the calls he received from him that he managed to find his mobile phone, which a policeman had thrown at him in a bushy area.

The two young men reconnected on Drumul Gazarului and went home. Initially, the tortured young man did not want to file a criminal complaint about what happened, but finally he was convinced by his friend to call the emergency number 112. Also, because he felt ill after the aggressions suffered the day before, he was transported to the hospital, where he received medical care.

The prosecutors claim that, in order to create the appearance of a violent behaviour of the victims and thus justify the conduct of the police officers, one of the officers fined the two young men, unrealistically attesting during the preparation of the contravention reports that the young men were caught disturbing the peace. AGERPRES (RO - writing by: Eusebi Manolache; EN - writing by: Corneliu-Aurelian Colceriu)