Update: Former MEP Adrian Severin could be release on probation

The Bucharest District 5 Court has admitted on Monday the release on probation requested by former MEP Adrian Severin, sentenced to four years in prison for influence peddling and bribe taking. The ruling is not final.

Former MEP Adrian Severin has requested the Bucharest District 5 Court on Monday, to be released on probation, arguing he has served his sentence with dignity and has not asked for compensatory days, although he has written several scientific works.

One of the reasons for the request is related on his health, Severin claiming he faces medical issues. Severin added he has worked while in prison, he taught foreign prisoners the Romanian language. “I believe the sentence has reached its targets,” Severin has told the District 5 Court.

His lawyer, Alexandra Dogaru, claims Severin has hold conferences while in prison, has concluded a working contract, has wrote scientific works, has written to the penitentiary magazine. “He had no conflicts and the Titu Maiorescu University wants to have him working.”

The prosecutor requested the demand should be rejected, as the papers do not reveal health problems. “He speaks about the trinomial DNA-SRI-ICCJ and does not regret his deeds,” the prosecutor said.

Adrian Severin, former MEP and foreign minister, was sentenced by the Supreme Court, in November 2016, to 4 years imprisonment for influence peddling and bribe taking.

Anti-corruption prosecutors say that during December 2010-March 2011, MEP Adrian Severin accepted the promise of the two persons to pay him EUR 100,000 annually in exchange for his tabling certain amendments in the specialist committees of the European Parliament.

Investigators say that, in exchange for the money, Severin would have accepted to veto several amendments that did not comply with the interests of the company allegedly represented by those two persons, who were actually undercover reporters working for the “Sunday Times”.

In July last year prosecutors extended investigation on Severin over complicity to money laundering in a file targeting an illegal offset case involving two of his advisors during his MEP term. Prosecutors also ordered the seizure of his accounts and on his salary.