Former senator Dan Sova, who also served as minister in the Social Democrat cabinet of his friend Victor Ponta (2012-2014), received on March 1 a final but suspended three-year jail sentence by the High Court (ICCJ) in the CET Govora file, Economica.net reported.

In 2018, a court gave him three years in jail, but the Constitutional Court later found that the number of judges in the panel was not right and released him.

It was established by all courts that Sova asked and accepted bribes from a law house in exchange for convincing the management of state-owned heating and electricity producer CET Govora to extend to it legal consultancy contracts. Initially, the Bucharest Court of Appeal ruled a four-year sentence with execution in November 2021, but the ICCJ reduced the sentence by one year and ordered the suspension of its execution.

During the years of supervision, Dan Sova must attend one of the social reintegration programs run by the probation service and perform unpaid work for the benefit of the community for a period of 120 days.

Dan Sova was also sentenced in this case in June 2018 by the High Court of Cassation and Justice to three years in prison, but he was released from jail after six months (June 2018 – December 2018). His sentence was then cancelled based on a decision of the Constitutional Court, which found the illegality of the constitution of panels of 5 judges from the Supreme Court.

iulian@romania-insider.com

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