BUCHAREST - Romanian ex-prime minister Adrian Nastase, sentenced in January to two years in jail for graft, claimed his innocence Wednesday before the Supreme Court in an appeal closely monitored by the EU. Nastase, 61, who headed the Social-Democrat government between 2000 and 2004, was convicted of siphoning off funds totalling about $1.8m for his 2004 re-election campaign. He appealed the judgement. Prosecutors said public institutions and private companies were pressured into taking part in a 2004 construction contest with participation fees passing through several accounts before ending up paying for Nastase's presidential campaign posters.
"The charges against me are entirely politically motivated," he told the judges.
Nastase, assisted by four lawyers, said he was "absolutely" not guilty and complained he had been harassed for eight years by anti-corruption prosecutors.
"I am indignant that instead of being able to join the election campaign (ahead of the local polls due in June) I have to be part of this political game," he said.
Anti-graft prosecutors, whose firm action against top-level officials suspected of corruption has been repeatedly praised by the European Commission, rejected Nastase's allegations.
Romania's judiciary has been under close scrutiny from the European Commission since 2007, with Brussels insisting on more efforts to fight high-level corruption in the former Communist country.
Nastase is the most senior figure prosecuted in Romania's anti-corruption drive.
During his one-hour long deposition, he blasted as "ridiculous," "absurd," and "preposterous" the prosecutors' actions and the judges' conclusions.
"I don't think there was any other trial were 970 witnesses were called to testify. There were three times more witnesses here than in the Nuremberg trial," he said.
A trained lawyer reputed for his autoritarian behaviour, Nastase was caught off guard when the judge interrupted him on several occasions, claiming he was repeating the same arguments over again.
"To me, stressing this idea once more is not a waste of time," an emotional Nastase said.
But the judges seemed determined to speed up the trial, as the statute of limitations could intervene as soon as June, according to several legal experts. If it does, Nastase will escape scot-free due to a special status of limitations in Romanian law.
The ex-PM is facing two more trials, after prosecutors appealed recent Supreme Court rulings.
In December Nastase was acquitted of corruption in a case involving a suspicious 400,000-dollar inheritance left to his wife.
In January, he was sentenced to a three-year suspended sentence for blackmail and cleared of graft.
Prosecutors had charged him with receiving some 630,000 euros in bribes from a construction company owner, Irina Jianu, in exchange for appointing her head of the Construction Inspectorate.
Jianu, who was sentenced to six years in jail for organising the construction contest that funneled funds to Nastase's re-election campaign, allegedly paid for Nastase's shopping in China and for restoration works in two of his residences.
Apart from Nastase's trial, another former Eastern European prime minister, Ivo Sanader of Croatia, is currently facing graft charges in his country.