“Bringing Omar Hayssam under the authority of the Romanian state institutions to serve 20 years in prison on counts of terrorism regarding the kidnapping of three Romanian journalists in Iraq, is the outcome of complex activities and operations conducted by Romania’s national security institutions over a long period of time,” Oprea said in a statement.
Organized crime prosecutors requested that Hayssam be placed under preventive arrest on embezzlement charges. The court will discuss the request on July 23. End November 2012, Romania’s Supreme Court sentenced Hayssam to 16 years in prison for embezzling EUR1.6 million from four companies.
In 2008, Hayssam, who had fled Romania while under a terrorism inquiry, was sentenced in Syria to four years in prison for crimes against national security.
In 2007, a Romanian court found Hayssam guilty of masterminding the kidnapping of three Romanian journalists in Iraq in 2005 and sentenced him in absentia to 20 years in prison. Hayssam fled Romania in the first half of 2006, while under a terrorism inquiry for his role in the kidnapping.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said in an interview with Romanian daily “Adevarul” in November 2010 that Hayssam was in a Syrian prison. He added that the two countries would discuss a further course of action once Hayssam served his sentence.
Two treaties Romania signed with Syria in November 2010, one regarding extradition and another concerning the mutual transfer of people sentenced to prison, have been blocked in Parliament since August 2011. On February 3, 2011, Basescu signed the decrees allowing the Parliament to ratify the two treaties. The treaties were signed by the two countries on November 10, 2010, on the occasion of Bashar al-Assad’s two-day visit to Romania.