The Bucharest Court of Appeal sentenced former social democrat senator Catalin Voicu to seven years in prison for complicity to abuse of office.

The decision is final but Voicu will not go to prison, however, as the Court also maintained the conditional release decision issued in February 2016, when Voicu left the prison after a conviction in another case, local News.ro reported.

The National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) sent Catalin Voicu to court in November 2014 on charges of complicity to abuse of office in a case related to overpriced purchases made by the state-owned electricity distributor Electrica and some of its subsidiaries in 2004-2005. He was a presidential advisor at that time.

Voicu was accused of using his political influence to determine Electrica’s management to purchase overpriced products and services from a private company without a public tender. Electrica and its subsidiaries concluded 77 contracts worth over RON 14 million with that company.

Irina Marica, irina.marica@romania-insider.com