Romania's Top Prosecutor Facing Corruption Probe

Alina Bica was detained on Friday for having allegedly approved a dubious payment made by the government in 2011 to compensate a businessman whose property had been seized under the Communist regime.

Bica, 40, is currently the Chief Prosecutor with the Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism, DIICOT.

However, she is not being investigated in connection with her work in this post but for her previous activity as part of a commission within the National Authority for Property Restitution, ANRP.

Investigators from the National Anticorruption Directorate, DNA, say that Bica abused her position when she approved compensation for a 13-hectare plot in a suburb of Bucharest as the land  was significantly overpriced.

The value of the land was artificially increased from 27 million to 89.4 million euro, according to prosecutors.

Media reports say that Bica received land in exchange for her decision, which she then sold on to another businessman who has already been arrested in another corruption case.

Bica is Romania's first top magistrate to be investigated for corruption.

The European Union has regularly raised concerns about Romania's failure to tackle rampant high-level graft. Corruption is often cited as the main reason why it has been barred from joining the EU's passport-free Schengen zone.

Recent months have seen progress, however. The anti-corruption prosecutor's office says around 30 actual or former members of parliament have either been convicted or are currently on trial for corruption-related offences.

More than 100 mayors and vice-mayors are also on trial for awarding public contracts to relatives and friends, or for similar abuses.