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Cultura

Romania gives Moldovan long jail sentence for Bucharest shooting


    BUCHAREST (Reuters) - Romania on Monday jailed a Moldovan, also sought by British police on suspicion of an armed attack on a Russian banker in London, for 12 1/2 years for attempted murder in the Romanian capital Bucharest.

    Romanian prosecutors said that Vitalie Proca gunned down a 26-year-old man in November 2012 in a mob-style 'hit' in a Bucharest parking lot after mistaking him for a local underworld boss, his intended target. His victim survived.

    Proca is also suspected by London police of shooting Russian banker German Gorbuntsov in east London in March 2012. Gorbuntsov was shot six times in the stomach in the Isle of Dogs but, though badly wounded, he also survived.

    "Today's sentence, for attempted murder and use of firearms in Bucharest, is not final, he can appeal it," a judge, Laura Andrei, told Reuters after the Bucharest hearing. "Proca will be extradited after serving his term here."

    The judge did not say to what country Proca might be extradited.

    (Reporting by Radu Marinas; Editing by Richard Balmforth)