Emilian Francu, mayor of Romanian city Ramnicu Valcea, was sentenced to four years in prison without parole in a case of bribery, reports local Mediafax. The Bucharest Court of Appeal’s decision is final.

Soon after the court’s decision, he resigned from the National Liberal Party PNL.

In September 2013, Bucharest Court sentenced Emilian Francu to four years of probation for taking bribes, but the mayor was released after five months in prison. The decision was appealed at the Bucharest Court of Appeal, which on Wednesday (March 26) issued the final decision in this case.

According to the National Anticorruption Directorate, in early-2013, the mayor of Ramnicu Valcea has given to an architectural firm a project which included the arrangement of a public market, a parking and a pedestrian passage. The designing costs were set at some EUR 200,000.

Francu has asked several amounts of money from the company’s administrator in return for signing several documents.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com