Ex Minister Udrea can leave country, despite DNA request to have her placed under supervision

The Bucharest Court of Appeal rejected today the request of the anti-corruption prosecutors to place former Minister of Tourism Elena Udrea under court supervision with a ban on leaving the country in the case in which she was sentenced in the first instance to eight years in prison. The decision is not final and can be appealed by the prosecutors. The decision was handed down by Judge Claudia Jderu, the same magistrate who sentenced Udrea this week to eight years in prison in the case of the financing of Traian Basescu's 2009 presidential campaign. After the conviction, the National Anti-corruption Directorate (DNA) requested that Elena Udrea be placed under court supervision with a ban on leaving the country, given Udrea's statements and the risk of her fleeing Romania before being definitively convicted, as it happened in 2018, when she took flight to Costa Rica. On the other hand, Udrea claims that she has no intention to flee because she has a child to raise, and that if she is convicted, she wants to serve the sentence in the country. She added, however, that she has to travel abroad regularly because she is undergoing medical treatment for having another baby. The Bucharest Court of Appeal sentenced Elena Udrea on Tuesday to eight years in prison for instigating bribery and money laundering. The ruling can be appealed. AGERPRES (RO - author: Eusebi Manolache, editor: Claudia Stanescu; EN - author: Simona Klodnischi, editor: Simona Iacob)