Update: Romania’s Integrity Agency chief arrested in illegal retrocessions case

Romania's anticorruption prosecutors decided to hold Horia Georgescu, the president of Romania's National Integrity Agency ANI, for 24 hours and asked the court to approve a 30-day arrest warrant in his name. Georgescu was taken in for questioning at the National Anticorruption Department DNA on Monday morning, March 16. Several hours later he exited DNA's headquarters in handcuffs and was escorted to the Bucharest Police arrest. The DNA prosecutors suspect him of abuse of office in a case related to overvalued compensations granted by the National Authority for Property Restitution (ANRP), reports local Mediafax. Georgescu was a member of ANRP's commission that determined the value of the compensations paid by the state to people whose properties had been confiscated by the communist regime. He held this position until 2010. According judicial sources cited by Mediafax, DNA also brought in Romanian MP Theodor Nicolescu for questioning in the same case. Both Georgescu and Nicolescu suspects in a case in which Alina Bica, the former Chief Prosecutor with the Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT), was arrested last year. Other big names are part of this case, including businessman Dorin Cocos and his son Alin Cocos, as well as former Bucharest mayor Adrian Videanu. Horia Georgescu, 38, has been president of ANI since April 2012. Prior to this, he was secretary general within the institution, from November 2008 until April 2012. ANI is an anticorruption body which looks into the wealth of public officials and can prosecute them for illegal gains. Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com