Former Romanian tourism minister Elena Udrea remains behind bars

Romania’s High Court of Cassation and Justice decided to extend the preventive arrest measure for former tourism minister Elena Udrea by 30 days. Udrea can appeal the decision. The Court decided to arrest Udrea for 30 days at the end of February in a corruption case known as Gala Bute. The anticorruption prosecutors made the request arguing that Udrea illegally approved a state financing for a boxing gala organised by a private firm. In 2011, Elena Udrea’s Ministry of Regional Development and Tourism paid EUR 2.3 million to a company owned by former Romanian boxer Rudel Obreja, to finance a gala in which Romanian champion Lucian Bute boxed against Frenchman Jean Paul Mendy. The minister signed an advertising contract with Obreja’s firm to promote Romania’s tourism brand in the boxing gala and thus justify the spent money. Obreja was also arrested in February. The Court recently extended his arrest by another month. The prosecutors indicted Udrea for abuse of office. The former minister also faces bribery charges related to several other contracts financed by the tourism ministry while she was in office. Prosecutors seize part of former Romanian minister Elena Udrea’s fortune Former Romanian minister Elena Udrea tries to impress fellow MPs by talking about harsh arrest conditions Romanian prosecutors hold former minister Elena Udrea on influence peddling editor@romania-insider.com