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Romania’s ex-PM sentenced to two years in prison

21 June 2012 00:20 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Romania’s top court on Wednesday withheld a two-year sentence in prison for the country’s former Prime Minister Adrian Nastase for illegal fundraising in a corruption case in 2004, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

Nastase, 62, was found to have abused "the influence or authority of the office of a party chairman to organize a symposium called ’Quality Trophy in constructions’ in order to raise money for the presidential election campaign he was to embark on."

The participation fees for the symposium, amounting to more than 1.6 million euro (about 2 million U.S. dollars), were transferred to a company that provided various services during the presidential campaign of the social-democratic leader.

In January 2012, the Romanian high court had sentenced Nastase to two years in prison, but the latter challenged the sentence by appeal, arguing that the trial was politically motivated.

The top court’s verdict on Wednesday, however, is final. Nastase has 24 hours to before being taken into custody. The former prime minister said earlier that he would appeal against the verdict at the European Court of Human Rights.

Nastase served as Romanian prime minister from 2000 to 2004 and headed the Social Democracy Party from 2000 to 2005. He also served as foreign minister from 1990 to 1992, and was the President of the Chamber of Deputies from 2004 to 2006.