[JURIST] Romania’s Bucharest Appeals Court [official website, in Romanian] on Monday sentenced Judge Mircea Moldovan to 22 years in prison for several instances of taking bribes from wealthy Romanian businessman in exchange for ruling in their favor in court. Though the ruling is not yet final, the court also confiscated a luxury car and seized money from Moldovan’s estate. The court additionally sentenced three other judges to prison, along with businessman Dan Adamescu, who was convicted of instructing his lawyer to bribe the judges in his case.

Romania is one of the most corrupt nations in the EU, ranking [TI profile] 69 out of the 177 nations globally according the watchdog group Transparency International [advocacy website]. In January 2014 the European Commission released [JURIST report] its semi-annual Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM) report on Romania, warning the nation to end political pressure on the judiciary amid continuing concerns over corruption. In September 2013 Romanian prosecutors charged [JURIST report] Communist-era prison commander Alexander Visinescu with genocide. Visinescu, the former chief of the Ramnicu Sarat prison under Communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu [Telegraph profile] faces genocide charges for beating and starving political prisoners between 1956 and 1963, the height of Communist repression against dissidents. In January the Bucharest Appeals Court ruled [JURIST report] that a former Romanian defense ministry official can be extradited to the US on charges of trying to illegally export military equipment to Iran.