Fugitive ex-Bucharest mayor released on bail in Greece

Sorin Oprescu the former mayor of Bucharest who is facing a prison sentence of almost 11 years for corruption in Romania  on Wednesday was released on bail in Greece.

The judges of the Court of Appeal of Athens on Tuesday granted bail to the fugitive former mayor pending a bail payment of 5,000 euros.

He was arrested in Athens on May 17 after he left Romania before his sentence.

He still faces a trial in Greece whether he should be extradited to Romania where he was sentenced to 10 years and 8 months in prison for bribery.

The 70-year-old former mayor who retired as a doctor last year, has to report to the police twice a month and is barred from leaving the country.

His partner Adriana Nica, appeared before Athens court and said the ex-mayor should be granted political asylum in Greece due to life-threatening health problems which would not be treated properly in a Romanian prison.

She claimed the Romanian court “sentenced him to death without being interested in finding out the truth. I hope he has a fair trial here,” she said.

Petre Lăzăroiu, a former judge at the Constitutional Court, also served as a witness.

“They asked me many things about the criminal procedure in Romania… They wanted to find out first of all flaws were in the case, and to what extent Sorin Oprescu had a fair trial.”

Oprescu, who was mayor of Bucharest from 2008-2015, was found guilty of receiving 25,000 euros from his subordinate Bogdan Popa, former director of the Cemeteries Administration at his home in September 2015.

Sorin Oprescu was arrested on May 17 in Greece, four days after his conviction.

Romanian court hands hefty prison sentence to ex-Bucharest mayor for ‘cemetery’ bribe

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