Prince Paul of Romania tries to prevent his extradition to Romania to serve a prison sentence

Prince Paul of Romania tried once again on Wednesday to oppose his transfer to Bucharest to serve a prison sentence in an influence peddling case, citing his health and denouncing a “political” affair. “Romania has been fighting against me for 30 years,” declared the 78-year-old man before the Paris Court of Appeal which was examining a final request for a humanitarian reprieve.

At the end of a judicial marathon, the Court of Cassation, the highest French court, validated the surrender of Paul from Romania who suffers from serious neurological and cardiac pathologies. He was then imprisoned in Fresnes before his lawyers, Miriame Laïchi, Patrick Ramaël and Elie Salhab, obtained his release during the summer and then filed a request for a suspended sentence due to his state of health.

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“Only power can stop power. If you, independent judiciary, do not do it, Paul of Romania will leave France on a stretcher but I promise you that he will return quickly, in a coffin,” pleaded Me Patrick Ramaël. Himself a former investigating judge, the lawyer points out the “purely political nature of the case”. And denounces a series of “serious dysfunctions” of French justice.

Me Ramaël suspects in particular a “violation of the secrecy of a deliberation” of the Court of Cassation, of which the Romanian press and government would have been aware before the defense. The Advocate General maintained that it was “out of the question to reverse” the surrender of Paul of Romania. “All medical elements have been taken into account” and “pathologies can continue to be treated” in Romania, she added.

Convicted of influence peddling and complicity

Real name Paul Philip Al Romaniei, the man who has British nationality, is the descendant of Carol II, one of the last kings of Romania. He is accused of having worked with a gang of crooks, starting in 2006, to recover properties that he claimed as heir to the royal family.

In 2020, he was sentenced to three years and four months in prison for influence peddling and complicity. In this case, 18 people were convicted for damage that Romanian justice estimates to be at least 145 million euros for the State - a figure contested by the defense.

A first request for surrender from Romania had been rejected by the French and Maltese courts (Paul of Romania had been arrested in Malta), the Paris Court of Appeal considering in particular that the warrant was “disproportionate”. A series of reversals followed until the green light from the Court of Cassation. The decision will be made on November 4.