Romanian speaker of deputies chamber sentenced to 3.5 years imprisonment

Speaker of Romanian Chamber of Deputies Liviu Dragnea on Monday showed up by himself at Rahova Penitentiary in southwestern Bucharest after being sentenced to 3 years and 6 months imprisonment on corruption charge earlier on the day, in a final conviction by the country's Supreme Court.

Dragnea, 56, also leader of the main ruling Social Democratic Party, had made an appeal last year after being convicted to 3 years and 6 months imprisonment by the High Court of Cassation and Justice in the file on fictitious employment.

He was accused by anticorruption prosecutors of having used his influence over ten years ago as President of the Teleorman County Council at that time to employ two persons at the local child protection and social assistance directorate, despite the fact that the two were actually working for the local organization of the Social Democratic Party.

So far, neither Dragnea nor the Social Democratic Party has made any comment on the sentence.

The court ruling was eye-catching, especially after the Social Democrats lost the European Parliament Elections on Sunday, falling behind its rival, the opposition National Liberal Party.

Most political analysts here believe that Dragnea's corruption case has had a serious negative impact on the ruling party, as he tried to reverse the case and even considered to amend the relevant laws.

The Romanian opposition has been using this case to attack the ruling party, leading to a severe decline by half in the party's popular support since the end of 2016 after the party's overwhelming victory in the general election.

It was his second conviction after he received a two-year suspended sentence in April 2016 for voting fraud in a 2012 referendum to impeach then president Traian Basescu.