The Bucharest Tribunal rejected on Sunday a prosecutors’ request to extend a preventive arrest warrant on the name of businessman Ovidiu Tender for another 30 days, according to Realitatea TV. Tender was due to be released at midnight last night as the previous warrant expired. But it was not to be.
As the deadline expired, judges decided that Tender must spend further time in arrest - probably another 30 days. Defense attorneys accused the judges of false documentation, abuse in service and “acting under the influence”.
One of Tender’s lawyers said the judges did not allow him to represent his client. Both he and Tender were forced toleave the court, while charges appeared during a TV debate late at night that a judge might have been drunk during the hearings.
And despite it was a public hearing, Tender’s relatives and the media were not allowed in court.
Ovidiu Tender is investigated in an organized crime and embezzlement case related to financial troubles at the RAFO refinery in Eastern Romania.
