Organization targeted by DIICOT for treason is Vlad Tepes Command group, retired general, suspect in case

The six people detained by DIICOT for treason and links with Russian agents are members of the "Vlad Tepes" Command group, judicial sources told media.Radu Theodoru, a 101-year-old retired general, is also a suspect in the case.Moreover, on the organization's website, Radu Theodoru is listed as the head of the "Vlad Tepes General Staff".Through various "releases", "memorandums" and "notifications", the organization calls for Romania's exit from NATO, the resumption of economic and cultural relations with Russia, China and Iran, as well as a new leadership structure for Romania through the "Getia" project, led by the "Council of the Wise". The Directorate for the Investigation of Organised Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) prosecutors have detained six defendants for setting up an organized criminal group and for treason, being accused of having established a military-type organization and of having negotiated with Russian agents Romania's exit from NATO."The evidence in the case showed that, starting in 2023, five of the defendants, together with a suspect, set up an organized criminal group with the aim of undermining the sovereignty and independence of the Romanian state by undermining the political and defence capacity of the country. Since 2024, another defendant joined the organized criminal group, with all members carrying out continuous, conscious, public or conspiratorial actions in order to achieve the proposed goal. Moreover, the members of the criminal group have repeatedly established contact with agents of a foreign power, located both on the territory of Romania and the Russian Federation," says DIICOT in a press release.According to DIICOT, the organized criminal group was set up under the guise of an organization and developed as a military-type structure, with a leadership echelon (general staff) and executive staff, represented by the image of the suspect under investigation, a retired major general.The research revealed that the members of the group, through online platforms, recruited followers and published videos (notifications addressed to Romanian state authorities, national and international organizations).Furthermore, the defendants took steps to conduct negotiations with foreign political-military factors regarding Romania's withdrawal from NATO, remove the current constitutional order, abolish political parties, put in place a new Government consisting of members of the organization who would occupy the positions of ministers, remove all employees of state institutions, adopt a new Constitution, and to change the country's name, flag and anthem.At the same time, two of the defendants traveled to Moscow in January, where they came into contact with people willing to support the organization's efforts to seize state power in Romania.Eight house search warrants were executed on Wednesday in Bucharest and the counties of Ilfov, Giurgiu and Maramures, following which several means of evidence were identified and seized, and the case will be submitted on Thursday to the judge of rights and freedoms of the Bucharest Court of Appeal with the proposal for preventive arrest of 4 of the defendants and house arrest for two other defendants.