Former Romanian minister Elena Udrea gets 30-day arrest in corruption case

Romania’s High Court decided to arrest former minister and presidential counselor Elena Udrea for 30 days, on three charges of influence peddling. This decision came after the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) held Udrea on Monday evening for 24 hours. According to prosecutors, Udrea allegedly received money to help a private firm prolong its contract with the state for the delivery of IT Microsoft licenses, in 2009. Her former husband, Dorin Cocos was also arrested at the end of last year on similar charges. The prosecutors also charged Udrea for receiving money to expedite the development of the e-Romania web portal. The third charge is that she allegedly received EUR 500,000 from a local businessman, Dinu Pescariu, also involved in the Microsoft case, to help him unfreeze his assets in Switzerland. These were the official charges announced by DNA. However, new bribery charges apparently were included in the prosecutors’ motivation of Udrea’s arrest request, according to Mediafax. editor@romania-insider.com