In a surprise decision on Wednesday, the Bacau Court of Appeals has ruled that the head of PSD Neamt and the chairman of the Neamt County Council, Ionel Arsene, will be judged at large, tvmneamt.ro informs.
Arsene is thus placed under judicial control for 60 days, being banned from political activities
He was arrested on January 18 and remanded for 30 days, and on January 22 was sent to court for influence peddling, being charged that, in 2013, he received bribe amounting to EUR 100,000.
According to the DNA, in 2013, Ionel Arsene, as Deputy and Chairman of the PSD Neamţ organization, received from a person (the witness in question) the amount of EUR100,000 in order to use his influence, as he claimed to have, on some people in the leadership of the National Integrity Agency (ANI), in order to find out the non-compliance to the legal provisions on the conflict of interest and the regime of incompatibilities in the case of a person who, at that time, had a leading position in the local administration.
The DNA claims that the money was handed by a witness, in a restaurant in Bucharest, and was to reach the respective persons through intermediaries.