Prosecutors arrested a police officer from the Bucharest pre-trial detention center on charges of accepting more than 9,000 euros in bribes from a man in custody in exchange for several favors. The money was received in installments from the prisoner or his girlfriend for one and a half years.

As reported by the Prosecutor’s Office of the Bucharest Court, the policeman was detained for 24 hours and will be brought to court with a request for preventive arrest for continued bribery.

According to the prosecutor’s office, in the period from May 2022 to December 2023, as a police officer of the Metropolitan Detention and Arrest Service, the man repeatedly demanded and received sums of money from 500 to 3,600 euros from the detained man. In total, he demanded €9,600, of which he received €9,200, with the money being transferred either directly by the man in custody, who is also a whistleblower, or through his girlfriend.

The policeman was caught red-handed on Thursday, when he received 300 euros from a prisoner.

According to the investigation, in exchange for money, the police officer allowed the detainee to receive packages whose weight exceeded the limit established by the decree, additional time for work in the detention center, allowed him to leave the detention center without the necessary documents, and in this connection bought him food and alcoholic beverages or contributed to the transfer of prisoners to other cells.

The police officer would continue to receive bribes from the man in question even after he was placed under house arrest in October-November 2023 as a “reward for favors granted”.