The Senate’s Judiciary Committee approved yesterday the request of the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) to detain and arrest Romanian senator Dan Sova on charges of influence peddling, with five votes “for”, two votes “against” and three abstentions.

Sova was heard at the Judiciary Committee, after he had studied his file with his lawyer for four hours.

According to prosecutors, Sova allegedly brokered a legal assistance deal of EUR 10,000 per month between the state-owned thermal power plant CET Govora and a private law firm, according to prosecutors. He received EUR 100,000 from the law firm for his services between October 2011 and July 2014. The senator got the money in tranches, namely EUR 5,000 per month, or half of the contract’s monthly value.

The Romanian prosecutors also asked the Parliament to approve Sova’s arrest in March this year in another case in which he was investigated for complicity to abuse of office. That case targeted several legal assistance contracts between electricity producer Complexul Energetic Oltenia and Sova’s law firm. The former Prime Minister Victor Ponta, who had collaborated with Sova’s law firm for a while, was also indicted by DNA in that case.

The Senate voted against DNA’s request to arrest Sova two times, in March and June.

editor@romania-insider.com