Former Interior Minister Cristian David was sentenced on Tuesday by the High Court of Cassation and Justice (ICCJ – Supreme Court) to five years in prison in the file in which he was charged by the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) of EUR 500,000 bribe taking.
The decision is not final.
The magistrates decided to change the legal classification in Cristian David’s file from bribe taking to influence peddling and the confiscation of the equivalent in RON at the BNR exchange rate of RON 500,000. The judges also ordered him to pay the amount of RON 20,000 for judicial expenses to the state, out of which RON 12,500 in the criminal prosecution phase.
In the same file, Valeriu Roger Niţescu, David’s former chief of staff, was sentenced to six years in prison for influence peddling.
Gheorghe Doliu and Marian Cristinel Bigiu, Prefect of Buzau County, were acquitted.
Cristian David, former Liberal minister of Interior during April 2007-December 2008, is charged with receiving EUR 500,000 to intercede with Buzau prefect, Cristinel Bigiu, currently suspended from the position as leader of Buzau County Council, in order to make him decide on a retrocession of a 15-hectare plot of land in Buzau County.
According to the prosecutors’ indictment, in order to cover the origin of the bribe several purchase agreements have been signed, referring to some fictional property transactions.
Anti-corruption prosecutors have seized David’s movable and immovable assets and on the assets of other three defendants in the file.
Former Interior Minister served a pre-trial jail sentence in this file from January 22 to March 20, 2015 when he has been placed under house arrest.