PM Orban says prosecutors' decision on August 10 case saddens him

Prime Minister Ludovic Orban said on Friday that he was saddened by the decision of prosecutors with the Directorate for Investigation of Organised Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) in the August 10 case and that he does not understand it, adding that "any culprit must be punished and that must be done by the Romanian justice."

"It's a decision that has saddened me, a decision that I don't understand, a decision that is contrary to what happened to all the protesters in Victoriei Square and contrary to everything that people saw on TV. I think there are possibilities to change things. As for me, I believe that any culprit must be punished and that must be done by the Romanian judiciary. On the other hand, do not ask me to give orders to prosecutors and do not ask me to do what others did, namely to ride roughshod over justice because I will not do it!" Orban said on Friday at the Interior Ministry headquarters, when asked about the decision of the DIICOT prosecutors in the August 10 case.

He said it is "very clear" that the decision for DIICOT to take over the case was taken during the period when "Tudorel Toader was the justice minister and Banila the head of DIICOT."

"What happened during that period, why this result? I can't give you the answer to that question. As for us, we have declassified the file, we have made available to the prosecutors all the network recordings, by the decision of the interior minister. We have also offered all the help of the criminal investigation bodies to find out the truth and we maintain such attitude," said Orban.

DIICOT announced on Wednesday that it had ordered the case of the August 10, 2018 street protests, in relation to which chief officers of the Gendarmerie were being investigated, to be closed, and the notification regarding an attempted coup d'etat to be discarded.

A part of the file that regarded the controversial intervention of the gendarmes against the protesters was dismissed by the Military Prosecutor's Office.