Romania's Liviu Dragnea Jailed for Corruption

News

After years of corruption allegations, Liviu Dragnea, the leader of Romania’s the Social Democratic, was sentenced and jailed for three and a half years on Monday - only a day after Romanians voted for a ban on pardons for corrupt officials.

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Reported by

Samuel Trilling
May 27th, 2019
Embezzlement Voting and Elections

The vote means that Dragnea will have to serve his sentence.

Dragnea has allegedly previously taken kickbacks in deals done with the now-deceased millionaire Costel Comana, been charged with embezzlement, pushed for weaker anti-corruption stances, and pressured OCCRP partner, Project RISE, with government agencies when it exposed his corruption. He was also accused of vote-rigging.

Dragnea’s sentencing comes after significant pressure from the EU, which threatened to revoke many of Romania’s privileges as an EU state and bar it from the Schengen visa-free travel zone.

The Social Democratic party suffered another defeat on Sunday, losing out to the pro-EU National Liberal Party in the European parliament election.

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