A prosecutor from the Prosecutor's Office attached to the High Court of Cassation and Justice - the Criminal Investigation and Forensic Department was placed under 60-day judicial control on bribery charges.

During this period, prosecutor Catalin Nicolae Ceort is obliged to go to the police or the court whenever he is called or according to the surveillance program, to announce authorities if he changes his home address, to not communicate with other people investigated in the same case, to no longer carry out his activity of prosecutor, and to not use or own weapons.

In the same case, Victor Igant, a suspended lawyer in the Bucharest Bar, was also placed under judicial control in late-December last year, for influence peddling.

Anticorruption prosecutors say that, in December 2016, prosecutor Catalin Nicolae Ceort asked EUR 260,000 from a businessman who was investigated for tax evasion and money laundering. However, Ceort required the money indirectly, through Victor Ignat. In return, he promised to help the businessman get a favorable sentence in that case.

On December 27, Ignat received EUR 30,000 from the businessman, according to a statement from the National Anticorruption Department (DNA).

If Ceort breaks the judicial control obligations, he could be placed under preventive arrest.

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Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com