01.07.2025

STOICA & ASOCIAȚII scores another victory for one of the most important property developers in Romania

STOICA & ASOCIAȚII's team of lawyers, composed of Victor Dobozi (Senior Partner), Mihai Trandafir (Managing Associate) and Paula Maftei (Associate), under the coordination of Valeriu Stoica (Founding Partner), recently obtained an important victory for its client, a major property developer in Romania, in a criminal trial involving several public officials from the Municipality of Iasi.

After a 5-year criminal prosecution by DIICOT - Iași Territorial Service, characterised by multiple violations of the procedural rights of the defendants, during which several service and corruption offences and other offences under special laws were detained and artificially investigated, the STOICA & ASOCIAȚII’s team made extensive procedural defences in the pre-trial chamber stage.

In essence, it successfully pleaded the unlawfulness of the entire criminal prosecution in relation to the offences under investigation, arguing that the DIICOT lacked material jurisdiction, that the unfair and unlawful manner in which a number of means of proof were administered, and also that the act of referral to the court was irregular, the STOICA & ASOCIAȚII thus obtained a favourable decision before the Iași Court of Appeal, which was subsequently confirmed by the High Court of Cassation and Justice, at the appeal stage, in the sense of the admission of the exceptions of the preliminary chamber.

In the context of the final decision, the case will be referred to the prosecution unit and the criminal case will no longer be able to be used to investigate the persons and offences in respect of which the defence arguments were admitted, the pre-trial chamber courts thus commendably giving effect to the rules specific to this procedural stage.

At the same time, the decision handed down by the Iași Court of Appeal, subsequently confirmed by the High Court of Cassation and Justice, represents both a halt to the judicial abuses committed against the persons under investigation over the last five years and a reaffirmation of the principles applicable to the criminal process - legality, loyalty and impartiality - principles from which no one can derogate, not even the prosecution authorities.