Corrupt Politicians Sentenced

It has been a rough month for the Romanian political circles, as the fight against corruption has picked its victims from among all political factions. Tribunals have handed out sentences indiscriminately to both Power and Opposition officials.

Bogdan Matei, 31.01.2014, 14:21

It has been a rough month for the Romanian political circles, as the fight against corruption has picked its victims from among all political factions. Tribunals have handed out sentences indiscriminately to both Power and Opposition officials.

For many years perceived as one of the most corrupt politicians, the Social-Democrat Adrian Nastase, who acted as Prime Minister between 2000 and 2004, was the first to go behind bars for four years, right after the winter holidays. This was not Nastase’s first time in prison, as he had previously served some part of his sentence for another corruption case, but was set free on a statutory release.

Last week another two high-ranking officials, both former ministers, received final sentences for abuse of office. The Liberal Tudor Chiuariu got a suspended sentence of three and a half years, while Zsolt Nagy of the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania got a four-year suspended sentence for the illegal transfer of a Romanian Post building in central Bucharest into private hands. Prosecutors say the Government-sanctioned transfer made use of forgery, and the property was sold at a price 3.6 million euros less than its actual worth.

In another move on Monday Monica Iacob Ridzi of the Dan Diaconescu Party of the People, a former Liberal-Democrat Minister of Sports and Youth, was convicted to five years in prison for abuse of office. Ridzi is accused of having assigned contracts to private companies and of having spent huge amounts of money for organizing the so-called Youth Day on May 2nd, 2009. Once the investigation started, Iacob Ridzi reportedly had certain data and folders deleted from the Ministry database in an attempt to conceal the truth.

On Thursday, the former Liberal Transports Minister Relu Fenechiu was sentenced to five years in prison for accessory to abuse of office. Before taking the minister post, Feneciu sold used transformers and relays manufactured in the early ‘80s to a Romanian state-owned energy company at the price of new equipment. Also on Thursday, within two weeks of being put in custody, the Conservative Gheorghe Coman was sentenced to one year in prison after a court found him guilty of influence peddling with a view to obtaining money, assets or other undue benefits.