Drama as Politician is Jailed for Distributing Food During Campaign (Photo)

 

In what looked like an epic drama, a Romanian MP will serve two years behind bars for bribing his electorate with fried chicken, The Telegraph reports.

 

Florin Popescu who resigned because of the controversy, distributed 60 tonnes of chicken to voters in an attempt to win another term as a council leader in local elections dating back to 2012 before he entered parliament.

 

The court in Bucharest rejected his appeal. The MP who is now popularly known by the mocking nickname 'Chicken Baron' was found by anti-corruption investigators to have abused his high position in local politics to secure a supply of fried chicken worth around £85,000 from a producer.

 

“On April 5, 2012 several people sent by Florin Popescu loaded the fried chicken into vans and took it to various locations where it was distributed,” investigators said. “All the packages of chicken were distributed for election purposes.”

 

The politician resigned his seat earlier this month in order, he said, to protect the honour and reputation of parliament. “Politics is a sweet rose but it can sometimes have a bitter taste,” he continued, adding that all men were “both good and bad.”

 

However, things became bad for the MP after the chicken producer reported him to the authorities.

 

Regarded as one of Europe’s most corrupt countries, Romania has stepped up efforts to crack down on the scourge of corruption in recent years, imprisoning a number of leading businessmen and politicians including a former prime minister and an ex-economy minister.

 

The country came 58th in Transparency International's "Global Corruption Perception Index 2015" the third lowest position for an EU state with only Italy and Bulgaria beneath it.