Romanian union leader Marius Petcu, detained for 24 hours on bribery charges

Marius Petcu, the president of the Sanitas Federation in Romania was detained for 24 hours on charges of bribery, with a proposal for a 29-day preventive arrest. Petcu was questioned for several hours on Thursday at the National Anticorruption Department, after being caught taking a bribe of EUR 40,000 from a businessman. He told the prosecutors that the money represented a loan that he gave to the businessman two months ago, according to his lawyer Alice Draghici. According to DNA, in 2009-2010 Marius Petcu, as president of the Sanitas Federation, received from a businessman about EUR 20,000 every month to assign the businessman's company a contract for works on an education center in Snagov. Also, investigators say that Marius Petcu received a villa in Predeal resort, worth about EUR 200,000 from the same company, through an intermediary at the beginning of February. Marius Petcu is the highest-paid union leader, with a monthly salary of about EUR 10,000, according to his assets statement. Moreover, he was eyed by the National Integrity Agency since the beginning of February, when the agency started checking several union leaders' assets statements. Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com