[JURIST] Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta [BBC report] was indicted Thursday for forgery, complicity in tax evasion and money laundering. Four others were also indicted in the case [Cotidianul report, in Romanian], which will be sent to the High Court of Cassation and Justice [official website, in Romanian]. Ponta was originally charged [JURIST report] in July and resigned from his position as leader of the Social Democratic party. He has not resigned from his position as prime minister, though President Klaus Iohannis [official profile, in Romanian] has publicly urged Ponta to step down [Cotidianul report, in Romanian] following the indictment.

Romania has been found one of the more corrupt nations in the EU, ranking [TI profile] 69 out of the 177 nations globally according the watchdog group Transparency International [advocacy website]. In April a Romanian court sentenced [JURIST report] former Senior Judge Stan Mustata to 10 years and eight months in prison for granting favorable verdicts to defendants in exchange for money. 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.