The "August 10" file - appeals rejected; start the process on the merits

The Bucharest Military Court of Appeal rejected, yesterday, the appeals filed by the accused persons in the August 10 file, a file in which the violence exercised by the gendarmes against the protesters is investigated. Following this decision, the file will return to the Military Court, where the trial will begin on the merits of the case, more than 6 years after the facts were committed. The appeals rejected by the Bucharest Court of Appeal judges had been formulated by the former Gendarmerie chiefs - reserve colonel Gheorghe Sebastian Cucoş, reserve colonel Ionuţ Cătălin Sindile, colonel Laurentiu Valentin Cazan and deputy chief platoon leader George Buzatu.

Cătălina Hopârteanu, the coordinator of the "August 10" campaign supported by the Declic community, emphasized the importance of this decision: "At a time when trials are stuck for years in the preliminary chamber, the fact that in the "August 10" file, the substantive trial begins, at a year after being sent to court, it is a great victory".

Among the people who requested and obtained the reopening of the investigation is Ioan Crăciuneanu, one of the victims of the violence of August 10, 2018. He was represented in court by his sister, lawyer Lucia Crăciuneanu, and by lawyer Toni Decean, from the Declic Community. Declic members financially supported the judicial efforts, both in the investigative phase and in court, challenging the initial classifications of the case.

During the August 10, 2018 protest, gendarmes are accused of abusing non-lethal weapons against citizens, causing serious injuries. According to the data in the file sent to the court, 63 hand grenades with an acoustic effect, 489 grenades with an irritant tear gas effect and 316 cartridges of caliber 38 and 40 mm, all with an irritant effect tear gas, were used. A technical expertise carried out by specialists of the Ministry of National Defense (MApN) confirmed that the grenades used had a high potential to explode and cause serious injuries, including burns, due to the force of the impact, the shrapnel and the high temperatures to which they were exposed . These weapons caused major physical suffering to hundreds of people who required medical attention.

The rejection of the appeals and the start of the substantive trial represent a crucial moment for the victims of August 10, 2018, but also for the civil society, which insisted that those responsible for the violence of that day be held accountable.