Romanian businessman and former MP Sebastian Ghita, who fled the country in December 2016 amid several corruption investigations, said he has been granted political asylum in Serbia, local Digi24 reported.

He said the authorities in Belgrade took this decision after hearing several witnesses, including former MP Vlad Cosma and current MP Andreea Cosma. According to Ghita, the Serbian authorities were “shocked” when they learned that prosecutors in Romania encouraged falsification of evidence.

Sebastian Ghita, who is targeted by several pending criminal cases in Romania, fled the country and was caught in Belgrade in mid-April 2017. However, he was released on bail a few weeks later. After he fled the country, he started a campaign against the National Anticorruption Directorate’s former chief prosecutor Laura Codruta Kovesi, accusing her of working with the Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI) on taking down high-profile politicians and business people.

Andreea Cosma, one of the witnesses Ghita said were heard by the Serbian authorities, was sentenced to four years in prison last December for complicity in abuse of office with particularly serious consequences. The decision was not final, however. Her father Mircea Cosma and her brother Vlad Cosma also got prison sentences in 2016.

Runaway Romanian businessman and former MP acquitted in corruption case

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