[JURIST] Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta [BBC profile] on Monday was charged with fraud, tax evasion and money laundering. The charges [DAWN report] date back as far as 2007 before he was prime minister and the court has seized property of his pending the outcome of the case. He has been accused of receiving approximately $60,000 from a political ally as well as having used forged invoices [Politico report] to pay for luxury apartments and a luxury vehicle. Ponta denies the charges and he refused to resign from his position as prime minister, though he did resign from his position as leader of the Social Democratic party on Sunday.

Romania has been found one of the most corrupt nations in the EU, ranking [TI profile] 69 out of the 177 nations globally according the watchdog group Transparency International [advocacy website]. In April a Romanian court sentenced [JURIST report] former Senior Judge Stan Mustata to 10 years and eight months in prison for granting favorable verdicts to defendants in exchange for money. In January 2014 the European Commission released [JURIST report] its semi-annual Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM) report on Romania, warning the nation to end political pressure on the judiciary amid continuing concerns over corruption. In September 2013 Romanian prosecutors charged [JURIST report] Communist-era prison commander Alexander Visinescu with genocide. Visinescu, the former chief of the Ramnicu Sarat prison under Communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu [Telegraph profile] faces genocide charges for beating and starving political prisoners between 1956 and 1963, the height of Communist repression against dissidents. In January the Bucharest Appeals Court ruled [JURIST report] that a former Romanian defense ministry official can be extradited to the US on charges of trying to illegally export military equipment to Iran.