The Supreme Court of Italy has decided to extradite Ionel Arsene to Romania, where he must serve almost seven years of imprisonment, Minister of Justice Alina Gorgiu said.

“The Department of Justice treats all fugitives equally, regardless of name. Today, the Italian Court of Cassation decided to hand over Ionel Arsen to the authorities of Romania. The decision is final. In the near future, it will be handed over to the country’s authorities,” Gorgiu said.

“The former head of the Neamts District Council was finally sentenced by the Romanian court to 6 years and 8 months of imprisonment for committing two crimes related to influence peddling. The Romanian state is concerned that justice be done to the end. I thank all the authorities involved!” added the Minister of Justice of Romania.

Last month, the Court of Appeal of Bari had already decided to hand over Baron de Neamts to the Romanian authorities, but he appealed the decision.

There is a European arrest warrant against Arsen. On March 27, the former head of the Neamts district council was detained in Bari, Italy.

On March 10, 2023, Ionel Arsen was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison with firing squad in a corruption case. The decision is final and was issued by the Court of Appeal of Brasov. Arsen left the country before the sentencing.

In this case, Ionel Arsen was referred to the DNA court in 2018, being accused that during 2013, as a deputy and president of the PSD Neamț organization, he received from a person (the witness in question) the sum of 100,000 euros in order to use the influence he allowed himself to assume on some people in the management of the National Integrity Agency to establish non-compliance with the legal provisions on the conflict of interest and the regime of incompatibility in the case of a person who at the time held a senior position in local administration.

Anti-corruption prosecutors claim that the money handed over by a witness at a restaurant in Bucharest was supposed to reach the relevant persons through intermediaries.

Ionel Arsene was also the president of the Neamț PSD starting in 2013, being one of the local PSD barons and considered the right-hand man of former PSD leader Liviu Dragnea.