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Entrepreneur Dragos Savulescu secures a victory over Romanian authorities

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Dragos Savulescu (pictured), the entrepreneur and movie producer, and his wife Angela Martini, an author and former Miss Universe Albania, announced on 10 September that a Greek court has blocked an attempt by Romania to extradite him. The decision marks the second time that a European court has rejected an extradition request in his case and ends the latest chapter of what Mr Savulescu describes as a “16-year miscarriage of justice”.

The Aegean Court of Appeal in Syros sided with Mr Savulescu, agreeing that Romania had no power to force his extradition from Greece and ordered an immediate dismissal of a Romanian arrest warrant. Mr Savulescu was arrested on the island of Mykonos on August 9 after a Romanian court submitted a long-defunct warrant related to his conviction in a 2005 land restitution case, charges Mr Savulescu strongly denies. The Naples Court of Appeal, in Italy, where Savulescu is a resident, has previously rejected Romania’s extradition request, while also legally recognizing the case in Italy and applying an amnesty to the sentence under Italian law.

As he left the court in Syros, Dragos Savulescu, 47, said: “We are delighted that the court in Greece has acknowledged that the extradition order is legally without merit, and that I am entitled to return to Italy.

“Even though the past few weeks have been hell, my arrest in Mykonos has at least proved yet again how the Romanian authorities are prepared to abuse Italian and European law by pursuing a warrant where they have no authority to do so. I am very grateful to the court in Greece, and would like to thank my lawyer, Mr Michalis Dimitrakopoulos for his tremendous work. This experience has only strengthened my resolve to   expose the great abuses in my case and in many others in Romania.”

The couple left Mykonos after the court hearing on Wednesday and have returned to their home in Milan.

His wife, Angela Martini, 35, also spoke of her relief: “I’m so happy. It feels like this nightmare is finally over.”

As an actor, Mr Savulescu has appeared in films alongside Kevin Costner and Ryan Reynolds. Despite having documents from the Italian authorities to say he was free to travel, he says he was arrested in a Mykonos restaurant in front of his wife and friends in an operation involving over 30 police officers and spent two days under arrest in Syros before being released, pending Wednesday’s decision. Since then, the couple have been living in rented accommodation on the island.

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Mr Savulescu says he has been forced to hire bodyguards and suffered years of false allegations that have damaged his business and devastated his family. Among the most recent is a false claim that his wife led Romanian authorities to Mykonos after she posted their location on Instagram. “Our location was not confidential and we had no reason to hide,” said Mr Savulescu, “We had been to France and Switzerland before this trip, posting on Instagram throughout, and then we openly entered Greece by plane – so it’s ridiculous to suggest we were trying to evade the law.” He also dismissed claims that he fled Romania to escape jail, insisting he was already a legal resident of Italy when his sentence was passed in February 2019, nearly 16 years after the case was first launched.

“The Romanian authorities deliberately misinformed the Greek authorities, even though they were aware my situation was legally clarified in Italy. This is an outrageous abuse of international law by the authorities in Romania that are clearly still living in Ceausescu’s times, and part of a campaign to persecute me for a crime I did not commit. Such abuse has been proved today by the Greek court’s decision.”

“The person most affected is my wife,” added Mr Savulescu. “She is a beautiful, loving and amazing human being who has been punished because of my situation. That is a huge burden on me, and this one of the reasons why I am so angry at this injustice.”

Speaking of her husband’s ordeal, Ms Martini said: “Dragos’ arrest in Mykonos was very hard after we have fought for justice for so long. He is a caring man, with a good heart and I love him. For me, love is everything and if you don’t fight for love, what should you fight for? Love is our biggest superpower and with the strength of our love, we’re ready to fight an army.”

The couple, who were married in the United States in 2017, say they are determined to clear Mr Savulescu’s name and to expose the “abusive” system in Romania. “We have been silent for three years, but enough is enough,” said Mr Savulescu. “It’s time to tell the truth about so-called justice in Romania.”

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