Romanian politician Miron Mitrea, a former transport minister in Adrian Nastase’s cabinet between 2000 and 2004, was sentenced to two years in jail, no parole, for corruption. The decision is however not final and can be further appealed.

Romanian Supreme Court judges ruled that Miron Mitrea is guilty of taking a RON 520,000 bribe (EUR 118,000 at today's rate) back when he was minister. The bribe came from Irina Jianu, who paid Mitrea to keep her in the position of chief inspector of the State Inspectorate for Constructions, the institution responsible for certifying the quality of construction work in Romania.

She didn’t pay the money cash, but funded some construction work done on Mitrea’s mother’s house. Irina Jianu, who already serves time in jail from two other corruption cases, was also sentenced to five months jail time for bribery. Jianu currently serves a six-year and nine months sentence from the two previous cases which also involved former PM Nastase.  She will soon be 60, and will be able to ask to have her sentence halved and submit for early release.

The court also decided the authorities would seize EUR 38,000 from Miron Mitrea.

A former union leader in the early ’90, Mitrea became an influential member of the Social Democratic Party (PSD). He was one of the most powerful members of the Government when Adrian Nastase was Prime Minister, between 2000 and 2004. He run the Ministry of Transport and Public Work, which at that time managed one of the largest public budgets in Romania. He has been a member of the Parliament since 1996.

Many of the ministers of Adrian Nastase’s cabinet have been investigated for corruption in the last ten years, but only Nastase himself has served time so far. He has two jail convictions. At least four other members of his cabinet are currently investigated in the Microsoft IT licenses case.

editor@romania-insider.com