The preliminary-chamber judge at Bucharest Tribunal sent the file back on Monday, 19 October, to the European Public Prosecutor’s Office – Romanian Desk. The mill headline said the case had been sent to trial. The minute says something else: the indictment is irregular, the defect was not cured, and the object of the trial cannot be set. It is not a conviction and not an acquittal.

The ruling cites article 346(3)(a) of the criminal procedure code. The indictment is No. I.000317/2022. The court portal file is 27804/3/2025/a1. Accused, not convicted: Jean Paul Tucan, Andreea Elena Dublea and JT Grup Oil SA. The charges concern European funds. Guilt has not been established.

Ziarul Amprenta published the minute. Ziua de Constanța confirms the same outcome, date and legal basis. The parties have three days from communication to contest. If they do, the case goes to the Bucharest Court of Appeal. Until then the return is not final.

Court costs stay with the state, the minute says. The decision was issued through the registry, not in a public sitting. That is the form of the procedure, not a hiding of the file.

Monday’s return closes the preliminary chamber, not the inquiry. The European Public Prosecutor can recast the charging document. Anyone writing that Tucan was “cleared” or “convicted in Bucharest” is writing past the ruling.

Until a final criminal judgment, Tucan, Dublea and the company remain under the presumption of innocence. Monday’s minute is an indictment defect, not a verdict on the merits.

Image: kallerna, Bucharest Tribunal, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons; the building, not the indictment.

Sources consulted: The European Public Prosecutor file on businessman Jean Paul Tucan RETURNED to prosecutors - Ziarul Amprenta; Bucharest Tribunal returns the Jean Paul Tucan and JT Grup Oil indictment to the European Public Prosecutor - Ziua de Constanța.