Shut up. Get a lawyer. A pack of Camel. The rest will work out.
If you're summoned, you show up. Don't run, don't hide, don't ignore it. Not showing up only makes things worse and makes it look like you've got something to hide. Show up.
It's probably going to be a complaint someone filed a few years back. Listen. Understand what capacity you're being called in — witness, suspect, defendant. Each one comes with different rights. Read the documents they put in front of you. Don't sign anything you don't understand. — These are the only official reports you'll sign in triplicate.
You have the right to remain silent. Use it. Anything you say can and will be used against you. Don't make statements, don't explain, don't justify yourself, don't tell stories. Silence is not an admission of guilt — it's the smartest thing you can do.
Art. 118 — Dreptul martorului la tăcere și neautoincriminare
Codul de Procedură Penală (Legea nr. 135/2010) · în vigoare din 19 decembrie 2025
(1) Martorul are dreptul să nu declare fapte și împrejurări de fapt care, dacă ar fi cunoscute, l-ar incrimina. Organul judiciar este obligat să îi aducă la cunoștință acest drept înainte de fiecare audiere, în condițiile art. 120.
(2) Probele obținute cu încălcarea prevederilor alin. (1) nu pot fi folosite împotriva martorului în niciun proces penal. Dispozițiile art. 102 alin. (3) și (4) se aplică în mod corespunzător.
(3) Declarația de martor dată de o persoană care, în aceeași cauză, anterior declarației a avut sau, ulterior, a dobândit calitatea de suspect ori inculpat nu poate fi folosită împotriva sa. Organele judiciare au obligația să menționeze, cu ocazia consemnării declarației, calitatea procesuală anterioară.
(4) Dacă martorul se prezintă la audiere însoțit de un avocat, acesta poate asista la audiere.
DO NOT MAKE STATEMENTS WITHOUT A LAWYER. DO NOT MAKE STATEMENTS WITHOUT A LAWYER. DO NOT MAKE STATEMENTS WITHOUT A LAWYER. Say that you do not wish to make any statements at this time without consulting a lawyer and that you would like to return with a lawyer of your choosing!
You can't do this without one. Get a criminal defense lawyer with experience in DIICOT/criminal cases. Not a divorce lawyer, not your cousin who graduated law school. A specialist. Pay them. Worth every penny.
They're going to tell you about stuff from years ago and you're supposed to remember it all. Impossible, unless you've got a photographic memory. That's why you don't give statements on the spot. Your lawyer can request a copy of the case file — that's everything they've got "against you." Without the file in front of you, there's no way to properly defend yourself.
They're going to offer you one. It's going to sound tempting — one third off your sentence, done quicker. Don't fall for it. A plea deal is final, there's no going back. Without a lawyer by your side who can tell you exactly what you're signing, don't accept anything.
They'll beg you to rat someone out. Snitch, informant, collaborator — call it whatever you want. They'll sell it nice: "cooperation," "reduced sentence." Yeah, you get half your sentence knocked off. But think about what you're doing — you're ruining someone's life. The same thing someone did to you. Some dude who's making money on the side to support his habits. And if word gets out that you snitched? You become their informant on the books. Today you rat on one guy, tomorrow they come looking for another, and it never ends. Say you'll think about it and talk to your lawyer.
To wiretap your phone, they need a warrant from a judge. But that's not your only worry. If the person who snitched on you has messages with you on WhatsApp, iMessage, Facebook Messenger — those are ready-made evidence. They don't need a warrant for what the snitch showed them voluntarily.
And as a bonus from Zuck: if you look at your Instagram reels, alongside girls in swimsuits, you've got n+1 jokes about drugs and n+2 products on how to consume simply and conveniently. You never searched for paraphernalia on Instagram — it just has engagement. The algorithm doesn't know what you consume, it knows what gets clicks. Anyway, your phone doesn't end up in front of a judge or prosecutor. But if the connection between you and the other person is compromised — meaning that person is cooperating — those WhatsApp and Messenger messages go straight into the case file. Tough luck.
If your phone is physically seized as evidence — for example, it was used in committing a crime — it will be sealed and sent for technical forensic analysis, whether you unlock it or not. If you've got face or fingerprint authentication, the police can force you to unlock it. But if you've only got a PIN — that's in your head, and nobody can make you give it up. It's a bit more personal. This is where an iPhone has the edge over Android. To "crack" an iPhone with a 6-digit code that wipes after 10 attempts: they copy the memory chip, try 10 codes, rewrite the chip, and start over. Combinatorics tells us there are approximately 10,866,129 variants of 6 digits taken 6 at a time. It takes a while.
There are also toys like Cellebrite or GrayKey that try to extract data from phones. But an iPhone, if it's not unlocked within an hour, disables its data port — charging still works, but data cables are dead. And if the phone was just rebooted, it enters "Before First Unlock" mode — in that state, almost nothing on it is decrypted. Basically, it's an elegant brick.
The examples above are about iPhones — I haven't had an Android in about 15 years, so apologies. The idea is the same: the more secured your phone is, the harder it is for them.
There are also 0-days — freshly discovered exploits, bought for a few hundred thousand dollars. The Israeli company NSO Group does this, or buys them off the dark web. But those are used on targets a bit more important than you: political dissidents, journalists, activists. Don't worry about Pegasus.
100%. It's not "if," it's "when." That's how the system works — someone files a complaint against you. Accept it and prepare. The good news: from the moment someone snitches on you until you end up in court or at DIICOT, about 5 generations of iPhones will have been released. It takes a while. Use that time.
When the case file reaches court, you and your lawyer can review it. Take photos of every page — whatever it takes. Your lawyer can also review the file at DIICOT. Read everything, understand everything, prepare your defense for real.
Work. Get a degree. Have a well-paying job. Seriously — if you're using and selling, pay from your own pocket because you're selling to others.
When the case file reaches court and becomes an indictment, you and your lawyer can review it. Take photos of every page — whatever it takes. Your lawyer can also review the file at DIICOT. Read everything, understand everything, prepare your defense for real.
Check if what's written in there is actually true, or whatever. In my case file I had 2 guys I had no clue who they were, the 3 musketeers of Bucharest we were.
In that indictment (the one from court) other people showed up too, but according to the story, we were the 3 who terrorized Bucharest. But we had plans to meet up with some bigger, tall, tanned dude from Constanta to bring some bags of something. I still want to meet those 2 musketeers.
The coolest moment. If you smoke, bring a pack of Camel with you every time you have a hearing. Don't ask why — it's an inside joke. Finding the courtroom in the tribunal is a pain in the ass, so show up early. And remember two magic lines that buy you time:
"I'm waiting for my chosen defense attorney."
— the first time you're called
"I request a postponement to hire another chosen defense attorney."
— next time
You can easily get a few postponements with this move. Each postponement is time gained.
DIICOT and the court want to know what you're doing with your life. Got a job? Are you a productive member of society or not? When you get to court, you need to bring proof — recommendation letters from a former boss, high school diploma, college degree, employment contract, papers on your house, proof you pay taxes, that you have a cat, a hamster, recommendation letters from former employers (or from ChatGPT, nobody checks) — anything that shows you're a normal citizen who contributes.
Why does it matter? To keep you in prison, the Romanian state pays approximately 200,000 RON / year per person — 2025 estimate. That's ~16,666 RON per month. About what a pipeline engineer makes with commuting and bonuses. If you prove you're a functional member of society, the judge prefers to let you walk rather than pay an IT guy's salary for you to sit in the shade.
Shut up. Get a lawyer. Camel in your pocket. The rest will work out.
"People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people."