Romania: Former Agriculture Minister sentenced to seven years in prison for corruption
Former Agriculture Minister Ioan Avram Muresan was sentenced to seven years in prison for embezzlement and budget misappropriation by a Court in Bucharest. Muresan was also forbidden to exercise a series of rights for five years after the sentence is executed.
The Supreme Court has decided to convict Muresan’s personal aide, Ioan Truta, who was also sentenced to seven years in prison and Silvia Capitanu, former director in the Ministry of Agriculture who got a five year sentence. Another manager within the ministry, Dan Jiga was found not guilty by judges and cleared of all charges.
Wednesday’s sentence is not final and can be contested at the five judge panel.
The National Anti- Corruption Office prosecutors have found that 28 billion lei were misused as ministry funds during Ioan Avram Muresan’s office. The minister was sent to court on September 12 2003, after being accused of using a counterparty funding come from US aids.
He was also accused of selling an action package for agricultural groups at a under-value price, for which he received various bribes. Other accusations had to do with facilitating state credits for agricultural products to a group of bribing companies.
