The High Court of Cassation and Justice (ICCJ) ruled on July 11 a final prison sentence of 10 years for Nicusor Constantinescu, the former president of Constanta County Council, for abuse of office, local Agerpres reported.

In July 2016, the Bucharest Court of Appeal sentenced Constantinescu to 15 years in prison in the same case. However, ICCJ reduced the sentence to 10 years as it acquitted him of some of the offenses, namely money laundering and the constitution of a criminal group.

Nicusor Constantinescu has been accused of authorizing illegal payments as president of the County Council, thus damaging the institution by over RON 30 million (EUR 6.3 million). Two companies and other people have been sentenced in the same case, while other defendants were acquitted or got suspended sentences, according to Agerpres.

The former Constanta County Council president is currently in prison to serve a five-year sentence in another case in which he was found guilty of not having secured the funding for the Constanta Area Military Centre between 2009 and 2013.

Nicusor Constantinescu used to be one of the most influential local leaders of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), one of the so-called “local barons” in Romania.

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