Romanian royal in French extradition battle

A French court will rule Wednesday on whether a disputed member of Romania’s former royal family must be sent back to his country to serve a prison term for a string of property scams.

Paul Philip Al Romaniei, known as Paul of Romania, has been found guilty of working with a gang of con artists to recover properties he believes are his as the heir to Romania’s last-but-one king, Carol II (1930-40).

Now aged 75, he is the target of a European arrest warrant issued in December 2020 after a Romanian court sentenced him to three years and four months in jail for influence peddling and aiding and abetting a crime.

The royal was among 18 people convicted over the schemes — believed to have cost the Romanian state 145 million euros ($159 million). They also included Israeli businessmen Tal Silberstein and Beny Steinmetz.

“I have done nothing illegal or wrong, I trust France to get me out of this nightmare,” Paul told an appeal court on October 4.

He says that he has only been targeted because Romania does not recognise him as the heir of Carol II.

– Unrecognised heir –
Paul’s father, Carol Mircea Grigore, was born in Romania in 1920. He was an illegitimate son of Carol II, who ruled from 1930 until he abdicated in 1940 in favour of his younger son, Michel I.

The royal family was expelled from Romania in 1947 by the Communists, and all its properties confiscated.

Paul’s father was recognised as Carol II’s son in Portugal and France in 1955 and 1963, but the link was only acknowledged by Romania in 2012.

Paul himself — who has British, French and Romanian citizenship — returned to live in the country in the 1990s.

His uncle Michel, the last king, did not acknowledge him as part of the royal family and died in 2017.

Paul now claims that his attempts to reclaim his royal inheritance of property, land and classic artworks are the real reason for his prosecution.

– ‘Serious political concerns’ –
His lawyer Laurent Pasquet-Marinacce told the court that the legal action is “impossible to separate from what (Paul) represents to the Romanian state, in light of its history”.

Pasquet-Marinacce pointed to Interpol’s March 30 decision to withdraw a wanted notice against Steinmetz in the same case over “serious political concerns”.

“The acts that got (Paul) convicted are directly connected to the status as royal heir that he claims,” the lawyer added.

The extradition appeals court in Paris has asked on three occasions for further details from Romanian courts to help its work, most recently in October.

“The deeper we get into this hearing, the more numerous and evident the authorities’ contradictions become,” Pasquet-Marinacce said, calling on the court to reject the Romanian request.

He called into question the Romanian conviction against Paul and whether his client’s rights would be respected if he was returned there.

Paul has also launched legal action to recover paintings removed from Romania by his uncle Michel I in 1947, including two works by Renaissance master El Greco.