Romania's High Court may announce sentence in PSD leader’s corruption case

The High Court of Cassation and Justice may announce an important sentence in a case targeting the Social Democratic Party (PSD) leader Liviu Dragnea today, June 21. The court has already postponed the ruling twice and may postpone it again. The anticorruption prosecutors charged Dragnea with instigation to abuse of office and instigation to forgery in this case. He allegedly ordered the Teleorman Social Assistance Direction to pay the salaries of two employees who did no work for the institution but were working for the PSD organization in Teleorman. The prosecutors asked for seven years of jail time for the PSD leader, who is also president of the Chamber of Deputies. The ruling party has been working in the last year and a half on changes to the criminal codes that would partly decriminalize some corruption offences, including the ones Dragnea has been charged with in this case. PSD and its Government are also in conflict with president Klaus Iohannis, who has been delaying a decision on removing the National Anticorruption Directorate’s chief prosecutor Laura Codruta Kovesi. Romania’s Chamber of Deputies adopts changes to criminal procedure code in late evening vote editor@romania-insider.com