Sorin Oprescu’s lawyers contested the preventive arrest decision ruled against the mayor and rejected the charges formulated by the prosecutors.
Mayor Sorin Oprescu has been placed in custody for 30 days in the case in which DNA prosecutors charge him with bribery.
Once the magistrates gave the verdict, the mayor of Bucharest was placed under Police Arrest.
Sorin Oprescu had allegedly set up an entire criminal network to get money from contracts awarded by the City Hall, DNA prosecutors argue. The mayor allegedly carried with him a mobile phone signal jamming device in order not to be intercepted during the meetings he had when he received the bribes.
Also, the whistleblower told prosecutors that he allegedly bribed mayor Sorin Oprescu in order not to be kicked out from the institution. The criminal network had been set up by Oprescu since the summer of 2012.
Sorin Oprescu, born in 1951, has been mayor of Bucharest since June 2008. He graduated from the Bucharest Faculty of Medicine, working as a surgeon. Member of the PSD and president of PSD Bucharest since July 2006, he resigned after a few months being defeated by Geoana in the competition for the position of party president.
In April 2008, Oprescu resigned from PSD to run as an independent candidate for the position of mayor of Bucharest and he has been mayor since June 2008.