Budapest, 6 March 2025 (dpa/MIA) - Six people with alleged links to Russia have been detained in Romania on suspicion of planning a coup, the organized crime unit of the public prosecutor's office announced in a statement on Thursday.

The suspects are said to have had multiple contacts with "agents of foreign powers, both on Romanian and Russian territory," the statement by the Romanian organized crime and terrorism agency said.

Romanian media reported that one of those arrested is a 101-year-old retired major general who repeatedly spread anti-Semitic propaganda in the media.

The agency has requested pre-trial detention for four of the suspects and house arrest for the other two. A judge is expected to rule on this later on Thursday.

The public prosecutor's office accuses the detained of treason and of founding a criminal group that it says has been planning "to impair the sovereignty and independence of the Romanian state by undermining the country's defence capabilities" since 2023.

The suspects' goal was to lead Romania out of NATO, eliminate the current constitutional order and political parties, and take over the country's rule, it said.

They then planned to introduce a new constitution and to change the country's name and flag, the statement said.

Two of the suspects travelled to Moscow in January, where they met people who were willing to support the group's takeover of power in Romania, the public prosecutor said.

According to the Romanian domestic intelligence agency SRI, the suspects also planned to establish a paramilitary group with the aim of destabilizing the constitutional order in Romania.

Members of the group had "actively requested the support of officers from the Embassy of the Russian Federation" in Bucharest, the SRI said in a statement.

The arrests follow the expulsion of two Russian diplomats from Romania on Wednesday, who had actively supported the group, the SRI said.

The Russian military attaché and his deputy had violated the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Bucharest said on Wednesday.

Romanian media reported that the name of the Russian military attaché surfaced in criminal proceedings against the pro-Kremlin and far-right former presidential candidate Călin Georgescu, who is under investigation on suspicion of "inciting actions against the constitutional order" and founding a fascist organization.

Georgescu won the first round of the presidential election in Romania on November 24, which was subsequently annulled. He intends to run in the election repeat on May 4.

MIA file photo