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Former Bucharest General Mayor Sorin Oprescu was sentenced by the Bucharest Tribunal on Monday to four years and four months in prison for corruption offenses.
The decision is not final and can be appealed.
The Bucharest Tribunal issued the first decision on Monday in the case where the former city official was tried for several corruption offenses and for money-laundering in connection with the amounts illegally received through commissions.
The judge has decided the acquittal for the money laundering.
Oprescu was however sentenced to four years in prison for bribery and the banning of certain rights for three years. The judge ruled the confiscation from Oprescu of the 25,000 euro amount, which was the subject of the bribery offense.
The court also ruled that the former mayor is also responsible for the establishment of an organised crime ring, for which the judge has decided a one-year prison sentence.
For abuse of office, the court has determined that Sorin Oprescu should be given a sentence of three years in prison.
Thus, the court found the final punishment to be the highest, the four-year one, to which it added an extra sentence of one year and four months. From this, the court subtracted a year during which Oprescu was in custody, home arrest, and under judicial control.
According to the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA), since the end of 2013, Oprescu has been heading an organised crime group, set up by the Director of Administration of Cemeteries and Human Crematories Bogdan Cornel Popa, with the purpose of conducting acts of corruption, namely bribery and bribe-taking, using money from the budget of the Bucharest municipality.
On September 5, 2015, Oprescu received at his residence in Ciolpani 25,000 euro from his subordinate Bogdan Popa, Director of the "Brancovan Palaces" Cultural Centre. According to DNA, the money is alleged to have come from deeds of corruption.
