Former Mayor of Piatra Neamt Gheorghe Stefan will be released on probation after he has served more than one third of the three-year and six-month imprisonment sentence for corruption, the Prahova Court has ruled on Wednesday.
Stefan cried on Wednesday in front of the judges before his plead, saying he regrets the deeds for which he was convicted, according to hotnews.ro.
The magistrates of the Ploiesti District Court had upheld, in the first court, the proposal for release on probation made by the Ploiesti Penitentiary Commission regarding the former Mayor of Piatra Neamt, Gheorghe Stefan, claiming that he has straightened and can reintegrate into society.
Gheorghe Stefan was sentenced to 1,278 days of imprisonment, of which he has served 297 days, plus 235 days of preventive arrest and 13 days deemed to be served as a result of his work.
He should have been released from prison on August 11, 2019 if he was to serve the punishment entirely.
The decision pronounced by the Ploiesti Court last month was challenged by prosecutors.
Gheorghe Ştefan, former mayor of Piatra Neamţ, was sentenced by the Bucharest Court of Appeal in April 2017 to three years in prison with execution in the file on the illegal funding of former Democrat-liberal Party (PDL).
Initially, the three-year sentence was handed down by the Bucharest Court on January 13, 2017, but Gheorghe Stefan appealed the decision to the Bucharest Court of Appeal, although he had concluded an agreement with the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) for admitting to guilt and accepting to receive this sentence.
The court also ordered the confiscation of EUR 165,000 from Gheorghe Ştefan, maintaining the seizure up to the EUR 235,000.
The former mayor was also sentenced in October 2016 to six years in prison in the Microsoft file.
On December 13, 2016 the DNA Ploieşti prosecutors notified the Bucharest Court on the agreement signed with Gheorghe Ştefan, former mayor of Piatra Neamţ and Deputy Chairman of PDL, charged with influence peddling and using the influence of the leadership position in a political party for the purpose of obtaining money, goods or other undue benefits.
According to the agreement, Gheorghe Ştefan agreed to be sentenced to 3 years imprisonment and on being banned some rights for 3 years, after serving the sentence.
According to DNA, in 2009, within the PDL, there was an agreement between Secretary General Vasile Blaga and Deputy Chairman Gheorghe Ştefan in order to get money for the party.