The Bucharest Tribunal decided on Wednesday to reject an appeal to release the former leader of Romanian coal miners, Miron Mitrea, from prison and opted instead to keep him behind bars. The judges decided Cozma, charged with a series of crimes related to the violent miners’ marches to Bucharest in the nineties, may appeal again for release in six months, that is on January 1, 2007.
Cozma appealed for release after a court decided in late 2005 to overlap the verdicts against him for his involvement in two miners’ protests, one in 1991 and one in 1999. Following that decision, Cozma now has only one year left to spend behind bars.
