The Tate brothers have understood to respect the Romanian jurisdiction and had the not done so, there would have been a very serious risk that the preventive measure would be modified, Romania’s Justice Minister Radu Marinescu said on Wednesday.

Asked in Parliament if it was an opportune decision to relax their court supervision so that they would leave for the United States immediately after President Donald Trump’s special envoy pressured the Romanian foreign minister to do so, Marinescu said that he was not aware of the existence of pressure from the American authorities regarding the Tate brothers.

„There is no pressure from the American authorities that the Ministry of Justice or the judicial bodies are aware of. The judicial bodies make their own assessment of the cases. In the case of the Tate brothers, although one of the obligations of judicial control has been modified, I have noticed that they have returned and have understood to respect the Romanian jurisdiction. Had they not done so, there would have been, of course, a very serious risk that the preventive measure would be modified. We have instruments of judicial cooperation with almost all jurisdictions in this world, so we have the instrument that allows us to bring people who do not respect our jurisdiction. However, as for the way in which prevention is done in an individual case, in a concrete case, it is the judgement of the case magistrate that matters. (…) The truth is established by a final court decision,” Marinescu said.

He added that he is not aware of a possible existence of a favourable treatment.

„What I know is that they made a request at some point to gey rid of court supervision and their request was denied. Only one of the obligations has been modified, that of not leaving Romania. (…) As far as the administration of the act of justice is concerned, I am not aware that the American authorities have asked our ministry or the judicial bodies that handle the case to adopt a certain measure,” Marinescu said.

AGERPRES