Two former Agriculture Ministers get jail time in Romania for trading influence

Former Agriculture Ministers Decebal Traian Remeş and Ioan Avram Mureşan were recently sentenced to three years in jail without parole for trading influence. The court decision is final. Muresan has been already serving a seven – year jail sentence for embezzling funds in another file, since May 2012. Remes, former Agriculture Minister between April and October 2007, received food products (sausages and plum brandy) worth some RON 1,500 as well as EUR 15,000 from businessman Gheorghe Ciorbă, via Mureşan. The businessman, who turned informer, was sentenced to one and a half years in jail, with parole. The other two in the case will have to serve their jail time. The food and money bribe was paid to favor Gheorghe Ciorba's son's company to win two public bids in Ramnicu Valcea. According to prosecutors, Ciorba also offered an Audi Q7 car worth some EUR 65,000. Decebal Traian Remeş stepped down as Agriculture Minister in October 2007, after the national TV station TVR broadcast video images of his meeting with former minister Muresan. editor@romania-insider.com