Romanian Organized Crime Chief Prosecutor resigns after being arrested

Alina Bica, recently placed under preventive arrest, resigned from the leadership of Romania’s Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT), but also from the position of prosecutor of the Directorate, official sources told local Mediafax. Her resignation was written last Friday, November 21, and submitted to the country’s General Prosecutor, Tiberiu Nitu. Alina Bica was questioned by the National Anticorruption Agency DNA last week for her activity as part of a commission within Romania’s National Authority for Property Restitution (ANRP), the state institution which determined the compensations paid to people whose assets had been confiscated by the communist regime. As member of that commission, Bica allegedly approved compensation for a 13-hectare land in a suburb of Bucharest which was significantly overpriced, according to DNA. The value of the land was artificially increased from EUR 27 million to EUR 89.4 million, damaging the state by EUR 62.4 million. Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com