Romania PM's Brother-In-Law Faces Corruption Charges

Romanian anti-graft investigators on Wednesday charged Iulian Hertanu, the brother-in-law of Prime Minister Victor Ponta, together with other three businessmen with setting up an organized crime group that misappropriated EU funds from a development project.

Prosecutors say a group of companies, including one owned by Hertanu, were involved in revamping the sewage system in Comarnic, a town 125km north of Bucharest - but some 1.75 million euro, or 54 per cent of EU funds involved, were diverted to other purposes. Hertanu has declined to comment.

In the same case, prosecutors are also investigating other people - including the president of Prahova's county council and two members of parliament - for allegedly supporting the crime group's activities.

The case is the second related to the Prime Minister's family. Last year, prosecutors began an investigation into Ilie Sarbu, a Senator and Ponta's father-in-law, in a case related to the re-privatisation of forests seized under the Communist regime. Ponta himself has not been accused of involvement in any of the cases.

Romania is still considered one of the most corrupt states in the European Union, which it joined in 2007.

However, under pressure from the EU, the courts have upped the fight against corruption in recent years. The number of people convicted of high-level graft grew from 155 in 2006 to more than 1,000 in 2013, according to official data. One former prime minister and nine other nine former ministers were jailed in the last couple of years.