Romanian authorities on Thursday former mercenary Horați Potra was taken into custody on charges of attempting to disrupt the constitutional order and preparing a violent coup. He was extradited to Romania from Dubai, where he was detained together with his son and grandson since September 24, TASR writes about it according to the Politico website.
“Romanian citizenship Horațiu Potra, Alexandru Cosmin Potra and Dorian Potra were brought to the territory of the country after the successful completion of the extradition procedure,” the Ministry of Justice said in a statement.
The Romanian Prosecutor’s Office on September 16 formally accused presidential candidate Calin Georgesca, Horați and Dorian Potrovc and a group of other alleged mercenaries of planning violent actions after the cancellation of the first round of presidential elections in December 2024. According to the indictment, they intended to provoke violence in order to overthrow the constitutional order and seize power.
Until then little known politician Georgescu surprisingly won the first round of the presidential election in November 2024. However, according to the findings of the intelligence services, the fairness of the election campaign was Russia through thousands of accounts on the TikTok and Telegram platforms. The Constitutional Court therefore annulled the elections. He had Georgescu later prohibited candidacy in a repeat election in May 2025 over further allegations of Russian involvement.
According to the prosecutor’s office, Georgescu and Potra met the day after the annulment of the December 7, 2024 elections to completed plans for a violent coup. On December 8, Potra was detained on his way to Bucharest in a convoy of several cars of armed men who intended to incite riots. Horațiu Potra (55) has dual Romanian-French citizenship asspent five years in the French Foreign Legion. He later served as a bodyguard for the Qatari royal family and for nearly three decades in Africa in private security services.
