The Bucharest Court of Appeal sentenced former Romanian Agriculture Minister Stelian Fuia to four years in prison, for abuse of office in selling several state-owned assets. The damage amounts to over EUR 362,000.

The former minister, however, said he will challenge the sentence, because he considers himself innocent, reports local Mediafax.

Other three people received sentences of three years in prison in the same case, for complicity to abuse of office.

In 2005, the former Agriculture minister helped remove several assets from the state’s property through an enforcement action and sell them via an auction. The Bucharest Court of Appeal also decided that the state needed to recover these properties and that the current owners should receive compensation.

editor@romania-insider.com