The newspaper “Financial Times” reported that the police arrested a group of 20 armed people who planned to incite riots in Romania. Among them is Horatio Potra, who is related to the extreme right-wing presidential candidate Calin Georgescu.
“The leader of this group, Horatio Potra, a former soldier of the French Foreign Legion and then a mercenary in Africa, is suspected of illegal storage of weapons and ammunition and mass incitement to prohibited acts,” Romanian media reported after his arrest. a group of armed people last Sunday.
“It is understood that the day before, Giorgiescu met with some of these people at a breeding farm near Bucharest, where the presidential candidate recorded an election pitch inspired by the actions of Russian leader Vladimir Putin,” FT wrote. .
Georgescu initially denied knowing Potra. When he was shown photos of the two, he said he did not remember the last time he saw her. He said that “Potra is not close to him”.
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The election results were canceled
Georgescu won the first round of the November 24 election, but two weeks later Romania's Constitutional Court issued an unprecedented decision to invalidate the vote on suspicion of interference by a foreign state. According to commentators, it is about Russia.
The politician called on his supporters to go to the streets on Sunday in protest against the court's decision. Dozens of people protested with him in the Mogosoa district of the capital, and hundreds of people protested in Bucharest and other cities. On the same day, Potra announced that he was arrested on his way to the capital.
Kalin GeorgescuPAP / EPA
During the search, more than two million euros in cash and various currencies were found in his property. According to the police, the firearms, machetes and a drone, as well as €20,000 in cash, which he was carrying in the car, were to be used “to incite individuals to commit crimes during the unauthorized assembly and to reward them”.
According to the “FT” news agency, the Romanian mercenary resembles the leader of the “Russian Wagner” group Yevgeny Prigozhin, who died in a plane crash in August 2023. Potra served in foreign legions and later operated in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where Romanian mercenaries are known as “Romeo”.
Company of Potri mercenaries
“After serving in the Foreign Legion, Potra worked as a bodyguard for leaders, including the emir of Qatar. Later, he founded a mercenary company called Asociatia RALF,” the British newspaper wrote.
Potra and his men were active in the Central African Republic, where Wagner's mercenaries still exist. Potra denied any connection with Prigozhin and his subordinates. He claimed that in 2016 and 2017 he trained the president's bodyguards in the country's capital, Bangui, and that the Wagner Group arrived there later.
– Some (…) claim that I was in Wagner's account. I have nothing to do with them. I have never met anyone from the Wagner movement, he said in a post posted on Facebook in 2024, referring to his stay in Africa.
Romanian Police Vlad Ispas / Shutterstock
“For the past two years, Potra has been operating in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo through a local company called Congo Protection, which has been supporting local armed forces in the fight against Rwandan-backed rebels. According to UN experts, in the last year the number of Romanian troops was 900, most of whom are still there,” FT reports.
This year, Potra ran for the seat of the mayor of his hometown Medias. He then publicly admitted that he has a lot of property and 15 kg of gold worth more than one million euros.
“Everyone is asking the same question: is the case of Mr. Potra related to the election campaign of Mr. Georgescu? But the indictment against him does not take this into account. He probably voted for Mr. Georgescu, but this is not a crime,” said Potra's lawyer, known as “FT”.
Main photo: Vlad Ispas / Shutterstock
