Bucharest Mayor: Law firm to examine chances of challenging IOR Park plot restitution ruling

Bucharest General Mayor Nicusor Dan declared on Tuesday evening, in a Facebook live video, that one of the law firms under contract with the Capital City Hall will look at the chances of challenging the court ruling for the restitution of a 12-hectare land plot in the IOR Park in the city's Sector 3.

However, Dan specified that at the time he took office "there wasn't much to do" in the litigation regarding the land retrocession, as - just like in another three similar cases - a ruling based on the lack of interest of the Sector 3 mayor in taking action as plaintiff in the case was already predictable.

"There are four land plots in that area, this one subject to the High Court litigation was the last and the largest. There are four land plots that were awarded to claimants following four litigation cases. The other three ended very quickly, in the years 2013-2014-2015. This was the last one. They all ended with the court determining the Sector 3 Mayor's Office lack of interest in taking action - this was the court's ruling. At the time I took over this fourth litigation from the position of Mayor of the Municipality of Bucharest, the institution that issued the restitution order in 2005, there wasn't much to do about this litigation in which, just as in the previous three, the ruling based on the lack of interest of the Sector 3 mayor as plaintiff was already predictable," Nicusor Dan said.

On October 25, the Sector 3 Mayor's Office asked the municipality to request in court the cancellation of the General Mayor's order from 2005 for the restitution in kind of the IOR Park. The representatives of the Sector 3 Mayor's Office expressed their openness to cooperate and provide the municipality with the necessary documentation - archival documents, photo-video documents - for taking the action to court.