Serial crimes in Iasi. 17 people died tormented with a toxic potion. Behind the scenes of an unprecedented case

Ali Dawoud (65), known as “Zaher”, a Jordanian citizen, Fuad Ahmmed (57) and Satar Dawoud, son of the former, both Iraqis, were brought to justice by the Iasi Court Deputy Prosecutor’s Office at the end of a thorough investigation . which lasted for several months.

The Arabs are charged with aggravated murder, as well as crimes of forgery and fraud, and if convicted, they risk life imprisonment. Dozens of people, relatives of the 17 victims identified in the case, have filed civil lawsuits in the case and will ask the court to oblige the defendants to pay moral and material damages. The trial will begin with the three in preventive detention and will be tried by the Iaşi Court.

The case begins with a series of criminal actions that the three defendants committed during the period in which Romania had just entered a state of emergency and there was a desperate need for disinfection materials throughout the country. The three counterfeit sanitary alcohol that they bottled under the name “Sante Med” and which they wrote on the label as medicinal alcohol. In fact, instead of ethyl alcohol, people have used methyl alcohol, which is toxic to the body, in the preparation of the killer liquor.

Egg paint in alcohol

Investigators entered the case in this case on April 16, when a citizen of Brăteşti, Stolniceni Prăjescu commune, announced that a neighbor of his, Grigore Ermalai, was found dead in his home. The day before, on April 15, two other suspicious deaths of Ana Lulea and Varvara Onofrei had been registered at the local police level. Similar cases began to reach investigators’ ears in the following days. On April 23, Alexa Teofan was found dead at her home in the same town of Brăteşti. People from Hărmăneşti, Lunca Cetăţuii, Andrieşeni, Deleni and Bocniţa were added to the list of victims. It was the moment when the investigators identified the source of distribution of alcohol, that is, a company that sells wholesaler in Iasi and that belongs to Ciprian Barticel.

The investigation would reveal that he did not know that the spirit was false, being, in fact, a civil party in this case. Going further, the investigators reached the main source, namely the three Arabs in Bucharest. After the searches, Faud and Dawoud were found and arrested in the first phase, taking the same measure, a few days later, in the case of the second’s son.

According to some judicial sources, the prosecutors indicated in the indictment that Dawoud and Fuad have known each other for about ten years, both being shareholders of some Bucharest companies. They also sell products in department stores in Bucharest, such as the Red Dragon. The same sources described the composition of the murderous spirit: 70% methyl alcohol and 30% water, on which they added the blue egg paint.