Fugitive Romanian prince triggers legal storm on sun-kissed island

Romanian government officials will travel to Malta on Wednesday to argue that a fugitive prince’s human rights won’t be violated if he is extradited, POLITICO can reveal.

Paul Philippe of Romania, a descendant of one of the country’s last kings, was arrested in Malta earlier this year at the request of the Romanian authorities, who convicted him in 2020 of a brazen scheme to illegally claim ownership of old royal lands and sentenced him to three years in prison.

The fugitive prince was hunted across Europe in a yearslong legal saga stretching from Romania to France to Malta, where police apprehended him in April at an event with other European dignitaries.

A Maltese court initially refused to hand the 76-year-old over to Bucharest, ruling in May that his human rights would be violated if he were to serve his time in a Romanian prison due to the cramped conditions of lockups in the country. The judgment also cited his “advanced age” and “unique position in respect to Romania’s monarchical history.”

That decision was overturned last month, but his lawyers launched an appeal in Malta’s constitutional court, which is ongoing. The prince was granted bail on Monday, after spending two months in Maltese custody, on the condition that he does not leave the Mediterranean island nation.

His lawyer, Jason Azzopardi, told POLITICO that in an unusual move, the Romanian authorities would send a delegation of officials to Valletta on Wednesday to tell the court that the prince’s human rights would not be violated if he were to be incarcerated in a Romanian prison.

A spokesperson for Romania’s Ministry of Justice confirmed that four representatives from the country’s prison authority and justice ministry would travel to Malta to testify.

Phillipe’s lawyers launched an appeal in Malta’s constitutional court. | Thomas Samson/Getty Images

“We have to mention that the prison conditions are very much improved in the last years,” the spokesperson told POLITICO.

Despite the earlier conviction, Azzopardi said the authorities’ dogged pursuit of his client was politically motivated ahead of Romania’s parliamentary and presidential elections later this year, describing Bucharest’s quest to haul the prince home as an “antagonistic obsession with getting him at all costs.”

“The justice minister wants him as a trophy to buttress her campaign for the presidential elections in December,” he added. “This is the long and short of it.”

Romanian Justice Minister Alina-Ștefania Gorghiu has not, so far, announced any intention to run for president.

Gorghiu’s spokesperson said she is “interested by all ‘fugitives,’ no matter the name of a certain person,” and her only goal was to “bring back all the persons who are trying to escape from the long arm of justice.”

“We are confident that the objectives of mutual trust and cooperation” between Romania and Malta “will be achieved,” the spokesperson added.

Maltese authorities did not respond to a request for comment.

Paul Philippe is the grandson of King Carol II, who ruled Romania from 1930 until his abdication in 1940. The monarchy was abolished in 1947 by the communist regime and the royal family expelled, though today it still enjoys much of its former status and pageantry.

A Romanian court recognized Paul Philippe’s princely lineage in 2012 but he is not a member of the royal House of Romania.

He fled the country after the Romanian authorities convicted him and several others for taking part in an illegal restitution and influence-peddling scheme involving the Snagov Forest and Băneasa Royal Farm, real estate which formerly belonged to the royal family, costing the Romanian state €145 million.