Paul of Romania has asked the French justice system to suspend his extradition to Romanian authorities for medical reasons. He is required to serve a sentence of three years and four months in prison in a case related to illegal restitutions.
In front of the Court of Appeal in Paris on Wednesday, the 78-year-old man claimed that the case is politically motivated. „Romania has been persecuting me for 30 years,” he declared, according to AFP. The court will deliver a decision on the suspension request on November 4.
The defense invokes health reasons
The French Court of Cassation has already validated Paul of Romania's extradition. He was subsequently incarcerated, but his lawyers obtained his release in the summer and filed a request to suspend the execution of the decision, citing his neurological and cardiac conditions.
"If you, as an independent judiciary power, do not do it, Paul of Romania will leave France on a stretcher, but I assure you he will return quickly, in a coffin," pleaded lawyer Patrick Ramaël, as quoted by News.ro.
The lawyer stated that the case has a political nature and accused alleged irregularities in the French justice system. He even suspects that the decision of the Court of Cassation might have been known by the press and Romanian authorities before being communicated to the defense.
The representative of the French prosecutor's office rejected the defense's arguments. She argued that the extradition cannot be reconsidered, that the medical data has already been analyzed, and that Paul of Romania can receive care in Romania as well.
The conviction in the case of restitutions
Paul of Romania was definitively sentenced in December 2020 to three years and four months in prison for influence peddling and complicity in a case related to the reclaiming of properties as a descendant of King Carol II in a case involving the Băneasa Farm.
In the same case, 18 people were convicted. The damage caused to the Romanian state was estimated at least 145 million euros, a sum contested by the defense.
His extradition went through several judicial stages. An earlier request from Romania was rejected in France, and Paul of Romania was arrested in Malta. Subsequently, the French courts approved the extradition, a decision validated by the Court of Cassation. The current request under examination in Paris concerns the suspension of the extradition on health grounds.