Romania’s ex-PM Adrian Nastase returns to jail for corruption

Former Prime Minister Nastase has returned on Monday in jail after Romania’s Supreme Court found him guilty of receiving EUR 630,000 in bribes during his time in office, as the country seeks to clamp down on high ranking corruption, in an effort scrutinized by the European Commission, the executive arm of the EU.

Adrian Nastase, 63, has been sentenced to four years in jail, months after he had finished serving a previous term, in a separate corruption case.

Nastase told reporters, as he was heading to jail, that the sentence was “terrible”, calling it a “dirty revenge”.

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PM Victor Ponta commented the jailing of Nastase, his political mentor, was politically motivated, comparing it with the jailing of former Ukrainian PM Yulia Tymoshenko.

“I think that Adrian Nastase was not only the best prime minister after 1989, but the strongest opponent of Traian Basescu (e.n. Romania’s president), and I think that from a political vantage point, the case of Adrian Nastase is similar to that of Yulia Tymoshenko,” said Ponta on Monday evening, during a broadcasted appearance.

Prosecutors said construction entrepreneur Irina Jianu bankrolled paid for several shopping sprees in China for Nastase and his wife Dana between 2002 and 2004. Jianu also paid for the restoration of two buildings owned by the president of the left wing party PSD in Bucharest and Cornu. In return for this favors, Jianu was appointed head of the public works department.

In this case, Dana Nastase got three years of probation, while Jianu is already serving a six year jail sentence in another case.

Authorities have also seized around EUR 400,000 from the couple’s wealth and they will have to pay another EUR 9,000 in judicial expenses.

Adrian Nastase is the first prime minister to go to jail since the toppling of former communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu in 1989.

Nastase was handed down a two-year jail sentence in June 2012 for embezzlement of public funds worth EUR 1.5 million to finance his 2004 presidential campaign he lost to Traian Basescu. He was released in March 2013 after serving two-thirds of his term.
Adrian Nastase was Romania’s PM between 2000 and 2004.

Ovidiu Posirca