Justice Ministry: Nicolae Popa extradition request fulfils the Indonesian law standards

The extradition request sent by Romanian authorities in Indonesia in Nicolae Popa’s case fulfils the conditions of the Indonesian law. The statement was made by the Romanian Ministry of Justice, which has been informed by the Indonesian Ministry of Justice and Human Rights. According to the latter, the temporary arrest warrant in the case of Nicolae Popa was extended.

The decision in the case of Nicolae Popa’s extradition will be taken by the Indonesian authorities. According to the communiqué, the Indonesian authorities did not ask the Romanian authorities to send additional information. The request of extraditing Romanian citizen Nicola Popa’s from the Indonesian republic to Romania, Popa being in preventive arrest since December 2 2009, was sent to the Romanian embassy in Jakarta on December 9 2009 and submitted to the Indonesian authorities.

The extradition was requested in order for the 15 years of jail punishment to be enforced, for crimes addressing continuous fraud and peculation.

The Justice Ministry sent the communiqué one day after the Indonesian representative of the Justice and Human Rights Ministry Rajda Erisman declared that authorities have contacted the Romanian Embassy in Jakarta and „have informed that they were working on Nicolae Popa’s extradition”.

The ex Gelsor manager Nicopae Popa was arrested on December 2 by the authorities in Jakarta, Indonesia. Known as the right hand of businessman Sorin Ovidiu Vantu, Popa was condemned in 2006 by the Bucharest Tribunal to serve 15 years in prison for fraud, alongside Ioana Maria Vlas.

Nicolae Popa was Gelsor firms group manager and member of the Sov Invest Trust Council, a society managed by the FNI. He fled Romania in 2000 and has been wanted by the Romanian authorities ever since.