The High Court has refused to surrender Oleg Culeac to Romania to serve a six-year prison sentence after finding that his defence rights were not adequately protected during an appeal heard in his absence.
Romanian authorities sought Culeac under a European Arrest Warrant issued in October 2023. The sentence combined four years imposed for offences connected with untaxed cigarettes with an earlier two-year sentence which had originally been suspended but was activated after the later convictions.
Culeac had been acquitted at first instance in December 2022 of two offences arising from incidents in 2018. Romanian prosecutors appealed. The Iasi City Court of Appeal later changed the legal classification of the offences, convicted him and imposed the four-year sentence in October 2023.
The appeal hearing took place without Culeac being present. Romanian authorities maintained that a lawyer chosen by him had represented him and that this satisfied the European Arrest Warrant safeguards for trials conducted in a defendant’s absence.
Culeac disputed that. He said he believed the case had ended when he was acquitted and did not know prosecutors had appealed. His former Romanian lawyers confirmed that he had not contacted them after the acquittal and had given no specific instruction to represent him in the appeal.
Mr Justice McGrath found that evidence clear and substantially corroborated. A document said to show the lawyer’s authority for the appeal was not signed by Culeac or a proxy, and the lawyers confirmed they had no contact with him about the appeal.
The court accepted that Culeac had never formally withdrawn the earlier mandate given to his lawyers. However, it was not satisfied that he knew an appeal existed, specifically authorised representation in it, or knowingly chose not to attend.
The judge therefore found that the statutory exceptions permitting surrender after an in-absentia conviction had not been established. Nor could the court otherwise conclude that Culeac had waived his defence rights.
His surrender on this warrant was refused.