A police officer from Botoșani was detained by his colleagues and then placed under house arrest, after it was found out that he had sold secret information from a criminal investigation to a journalist, but also that he had taken money from a criminal defendant. The man is accused of corruption, abuse of office and disclosure of secret service or non-public information and faces serious prison terms.
UPDATE ora 17:00
The police officer was placed under house arrest for 30 days. According to Digi24 information, the man, who is about 46 years old, had been hired by the police in 2016, from an external source. He would have received a bribe of 100 euros in the case of the man investigated for the theft of a mobile phone and would have seriously affected the investigation in the case of the file from which he disclosed secret information to the press. Digi24 sources say that he was investigated in the past for illegal access to computer systems and disclosure of secret information, but that there was not enough evidence to incriminate him.
THE INITIAL NEWS
The man worked as a police officer in the IPJ Botoșani – Botoșani Municipal Police – Criminal Investigation Bureau. In the case of secret information disclosed in the press, the criminal investigation, prosecutors say, would have been jeopardized.
“Between November 2022 and May 2023, the police officer provided a journalist from a local publication with secret service or non-public information, information that was later published in press articles, affecting the interests and activity of IPJ Botoșani” , it is stated in the press release of the General Anticorruption Directorate.
In the same period, say the investigators, the same policeman disclosed to another person the fact that he is being investigated in several criminal cases that are pending at the Prosecutor’s Office attached to the Botoșani Court.
In addition, in January 2023, the man allegedly took a bribe to divulge information from another file.
“He accepted the promise of a bribe made by a person with no special status, the suspect in question, who offered him a sum of money, regarding the investigations of a criminal act, namely the theft of a mobile phone that he reported- o. The investigations showed that, in these circumstances, the police officer did not fulfill his duties”, the press release sent by the DGA states.
In order to gather evidence for the case, on Tuesday, the police made 3 searches: one in the office of the agent from the headquarters of the Botoșani Police, the Bureau of Criminal Investigations, and two at the man’s residence.
“In relation to the judicial police officer, the fact that, as a judicial police officer, being in the exercise of his duties, with intention, thereby procuring non-patrimonial benefits to some people represented by evading criminal and contraventional liability, was also held in his charge.
In the case, criminal investigation documents are also being carried out regarding the criminal activity of two other persons, without special status, regarding the commission of the crimes of bribery and complicity in bribery,” the investigators say.
After she was taken for questioning, the policeman was detained for 24 hours. The man is accused of corruption, abuse of office and disclosure of secret service or non-public information and will be taken before the judges with a proposal for preventive arrest.
Editor: Izabela Zaharia
