Romanian court sentences hacker Guccifer to jail

Newsroom 07/06/2014 | 13:03

Romanian court sentenced hacker “Guccifer”, who broke into the emails of former U.S. president George W. Bush’s family, entertainment figures and the head of the Romanian secret service, to four years in jail on Friday, according to Reuters.

Marcel Lazar Lehel, a cab driver by trade and known by his aliases “Guccifer” and “Small Fume”, was arrested in January in Bucharest and could spend a total of seven years behind bars as he also carries a previous three-year suspended sentence. He pleaded guilty of his charges in late May, but in spite of this, Romania’s Information Service (SRI) still called for a maximum sentence.

“I’ve admitted and I admit the charges against me. (…) Over the course of this trial, DIICOT prosecutors claimed I am a threat to national security. I would say it is about three e-mail accounts that I took over without any damages, physical or otherweise. Everyone’s had their email account hacked. I personally have had my accounts hacked five times and I’ve never been to DIICOT. My crimes are nowhere near so serious”, the defedant said in front of the court, quoted by realitatea.net.

An official at the Romanian general prosecutor’s office, who has knowledge of the case but who did not want to be named, told Reuters the office had no knowledge of any extradition request for Guccifer from the United States.

“Guccifer” victimized scores of other public figures in the U.S. and Europe. The hacker broke into the e-mail accounts of members of the Bush and Rockefeller families; Obama administration officials; journalists and authors; business executives; three members of England’s House of Lords; military officers; Council on Foreign Relations members; and actors like Mariel Hemingway and Rupert Everett.

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