Anticorruption prosecutors searched yesterday the office of the Iasi County Council president Maricel Popa and withheld his mobile phones, according to sources in the local administration cited by local News.ro.

Moreover, prosecutors picked up several documents from the institution. Maricel Popa was in the Iasi airport on Tuesday morning, on his way to the Development Ministry in Bucharest, but he had to return to the office.

Prosecutors also searched the department for EU projects, the audit department and the Iasi road administration directorate, as well as several companies in the county.

Judicial sources said that the controls were related to contracts concluded by the Iasi road administration directorate and how the institution’s director Daniel Achitei was appointed at the beginning of the year. Prosecutors investigate offenses of bribery and abuse of office in this case, according to the same sources.

Maricel Popa, a member of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) was appointed Iasi county council president in June last year.

editor@romania-insider.com