Romania Jails Ex-Sports Minister For Corruption

Romania's High Court of Cassation and Justice on Monday jailed former Sports Minister Monica Iacob-Ridzi for five years for abuse of service and corruption. The decision is final.

Iacob-Ridzi, who was minister between December 2008 and July 2009 in a centre-right government, was found guilty of illegally handing out over-valued contracts to private firms, costing the government around 540,000 euro in 2009. She also tried to delete evidence of her actions from the computer, prosecutors said.

Ioana Varsta, one of Ridzi's counselors, was also sentenced to five years in prison.

Iacob-Ridzi is the tenth former Romanian minister to receive a final conviction for corruption.

Among the others are former ministers of the economy, agriculture, defence, transport, communications as well as a former prime minister, Adrian Nastase.

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.