The High Court of Cassation and Justice sentenced Romanian judges Liliana Badescu and Dumitrita Piciarca to four years and four months in prison each, for abuse of office and favoring an offender.

The two judges were accused of illegally canceling a seven-year prison sentence local businessman Dinel Staicu received for fraud at the International Bank of Religions (BIR).

Initially, the Bucharest Court of Appeal acquitted the two judges in the spring of 2016. However, the High Court of Cassation and Justice admitted the appeal filed by the National Anticorruption Department (DNA) and sentenced Liliana Badescu and Dumitrita Piciarca to prison, with no parole, reports local Agerpres. The court also decided that Badescu and Piciarca should pay jointly the four-year legal interest to the amount Staicu owed to the International Bank of Religions.

A third judge targeted by this case, Veronica Cirstoiu, has a separate trial at the Bucharest Court of Appeal.

The DNA sent the three judges to court in 2014 on charges of abuse of office, favoring the offender, and forgery, after these approved an appeal to cancel a seven-year prison sentence received by businessman Dinel Staicu for the fraud at BIR. When admitting the appeal, the judges admitted facts and circumstances that were not true.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com