{"id":246257,"date":"2025-09-22T12:09:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-22T12:09:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/246257\/"},"modified":"2025-09-22T12:09:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T12:09:12","slug":"tourist-mistaken-for-wanted-fugitive-spends-nearly-a-month-in-italian-prison-the-nightmare-is-over","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/246257\/","title":{"rendered":"Tourist mistaken for wanted fugitive spends nearly a month in Italian prison: &#8220;The nightmare is over&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A Romanian tourist spent nearly a month in prison after police mistook him for a wanted criminal on the first day of his holiday in Italy, his lawyer said on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The nightmare is over,&#8221; Ovidiu A. said as he left Pordenone prison in northern Italy on Thursday, local newspaper Corriere del Veneto <a href=\"https:\/\/corrieredelveneto.corriere.it\/notizie\/venezia-mestre\/cronaca\/25_settembre_19\/va-in-vacanza-a-caorle-e-viene-scambiato-per-un-criminale-liberato-dopo-un-mese-in-carcere-b2a6a029-7f67-4d57-bfa6-02b877dfcxlk.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He was finally able to reunite with his family,&#8221; who had been waiting for him since August 24, the day of his arrest, his lawyer Stefano De Rosa told AFP.<\/p>\n<p>Originally from Iasi, Romania, Ovidiu A. had come to spend a few days with his family in Caorle, near Venice.<\/p>\n<p>He would soon find out he shares a name with a wanted Romanian criminal, previously sentenced to two years in prison in Italy for aggravated theft.<\/p>\n<p>The name, registered at the hotel upon arrival, triggered an alert, and the tourist was arrested by the carabinieri at his first breakfast.<\/p>\n<p>His lawyer explained he had struggled to gather evidence proving it was a case of mistaken identity, as the initial trial for aggravated theft dated back to 2014 and the final sentencing to 2020.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The computer systems of the police, prison, court and carabinieri do not communicate with each other. I had to request documentation from each office,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>According to Corriere del Veneto, the tourist and his family are expected to continue their holiday in Italy for a few more days before returning to Romania.<\/p>\n<p>      <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/gettyimages-1749534094.jpg#.jpeg\" alt=\"Traditional wooden boat docked in canal in the city Caorle, coastal town in the Metropolitan City of Venice, Veneto, Northern Italy \" height=\"413\" width=\"620\" class=\" lazyload\"  loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                  Undated photo of a traditional wooden boat docked in a canal in the city Caorle, coastal town in the Metropolitan City of Venice, Veneto, Northern Italy.<\/p>\n<p>                Marica van der Meer\/Arterra\/Universal Images Group via Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>He &#8220;has decided to enjoy at least a few days at the beach , which had been his goal,&#8221; the newspaper reported.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The damage was enormous, but he faced it with great dignity and calm ,&#8221; his lawyer told \u00a0Corriere del Veneto.<\/p>\n<p>\n        More from CBS News\n      <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Romanian tourist spent nearly a month in prison after police mistook him for a wanted criminal on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":246258,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[2219,50,5332,10293,103],"class_list":{"0":"post-246257","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-italy","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-prison","11":"tag-romania","12":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115247878525537714","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246257\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}