A young man from Dolj who was wrongly detained by police as a suspect in the murder of a Sibiu businessman says he will sue the police. The man, who was later released, says police kicked and punched him in front of his family and a neighbor, and that he has been unable to find work since the incident. He claims the police made fun of him and told him he was riding the Mobra without a helmet, which would “send him in jail for 20 years”.

Laurentiu Liakatusu, who was detained by the police in front of his house on November 16 in a case investigating the murder of businessman Adrian Kreiner from Sibiu, told Libertatea about the moments he went through.

“They kicked, one punched in the mouth and put on handcuffs”

The man said that he was returning home that day after plastering the fence. His wife called him to get there as soon as possible, because some people in black were walking in front of the yard. Thinking that thieves might steal a pig from his house, Laurentiu Laketushu hurried home and when he got to the gate, he was surrounded by police officers who, without documents, asked him to get into their car. He says that when he asked a plainclothes policeman for his ID, some law enforcement officers knocked him to the ground, writes News.ro with reference to Libertatea.

“They kicked me, one punched me in the mouth, and they put handcuffs on me. “I remember one policeman yelling ‘don’t hit him!’,” said Laurentiu Laketus.

The scenes took place in front of his wife, child and a neighbor who, not knowing what was happening, went outside the gate with his hair. The policeman asked the neighbor to go outside, threatening to shoot him, Lakatusu says.

A plainclothes policewoman said to me: “Won’t you give me back that expensive watch you just bought?”.

Then the man was taken to the Segarchy police station, without explaining why. There he was kept in handcuffs and photographed, and a quarter of an hour later was sent to the Kraiova police. On the way to Craiova, he was photographed again, lying on his stomach, in handcuffs, the pictures were given to the mass media, he says. All this time, the police made fun of him and told him that he was riding Mobra without a helmet, because of which he would be “imprisoned for 20 years”.

“In Kraiova, a plainclothes policewoman said to me: won’t you give me back that expensive watch you just bought?” I haven’t heard about the crime in Sibiu because I come home from work in the evening tired, I don’t watch TV. And I told him that I had wrist watches, wall watches, and one received as alms, which they would give me if he wanted it. And then she told the others that I don’t think it’s him,” Libertatea journalists write.

Fingerprints were taken in Kraiów. DNA samples were taken from him, then he was taken to Vilch, and from there by minibus to Sibiu, where journalists were waiting for him, asking about the crime. He was even stripped, and the investigators were looking for tattoos on his body.

In Sibiu, he was taken off in handcuffs, placed in front of a mirror, most likely so that witnesses could see him.

“I found the wrong person”

“Someone told the masked people: get out, mind your own business, because it’s not him, I’m not that person. They returned my ballot and phone. And they explained that they brought me there because three people recognized me. They recognized me from photos on Facebook, do you understand?”, the man also told Libertatee journalists, according to News.ro.

Then they returned to him the backpack that he carried on the way home and in which he had tools for work at the construction site. Because the people who took him from home cut the straps of the backpack, Sibiu police fixed them with a paper stapler.

At 2 o’clock he was released, to Sibiu, but he was told that he could not be taken home, to Dolj, until 8 o’clock in the morning, because the police were also tired. In the morning, a statement was taken from him, according to which he was taken and taken to the police as a witness and that he knows nothing about this case.

The man says that no one from the police has apologized for what happened to him. The prosecutor before whom he was testifying told him before letting him go: “We apologize for the mistake.” Laurenciju Lăcătuşu arrived home the next day, November 17, around 6:00 p.m., and from there his uncle took him home to Bârza.

The boy was barbecuing with family and neighbors, and his alibi was verified after he was picked up by the police.

The man says he has never had a problem with the police. Earlier, he received a fine of 200 lei for arguing with a neighbor. His mother learned on TV that he was being investigated for murder. People point at him on the street and he can no longer find work. He hired a lawyer and obtained a medical certificate stating that he had sustained injuries that required 5 days of medical attention. He will sue the Romanian police: “I borrow money and work to reduce my debts. But I will not leave them like that!”.