Court orders 30-day pretrial detention of two Olt water officials over bribes

The court order

On 4 November 2026 a judge for rights and freedoms at the Brașov Tribunal admitted a proposal from prosecutors of the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA), Brașov territorial service, and ordered 30 days of pretrial arrest for Daniel Băviță and Constantin Alin Trușcă. Băviță heads the Inspection Service for Basin Waters within the Olt Basin Water Administration, while Trușcă is an inspector in the same service. Prosecutors had set criminal proceedings in motion against the pair on Tuesday, 3 November 2026, and held them for 24 hours. According to the DNA communiqué, each man is accused of two counts of bribery. The DNA said the two were informed of their procedural status and of the charges against them.

“Initiating criminal proceedings is a stage of the criminal process that cannot, in any circumstances, override the presumption of innocence.”

Timeline of the case

The alleged bribes date to 12 August 2026, months before the case reached the court in November. The sequence runs from the 12 August inspections to the 3 November charges and the 4 November detention order, as the chart below shows.

The alleged bribes

Prosecutors say that on 12 August 2026 the two men, during inspections in Brașov county at the worksites of companies that extract and sort mineral aggregates, asked for and received money from representatives of two firms. The sums were 10,000 lei and 6,000 lei, received on two separate occasions, which prosecutors put at a total of 16,000 lei. In return, the pair allegedly promised not to impose fines for the irregularities found, or to impose lighter penalties for the deviations identified. The communiqué does not name the two companies. The chart below breaks down the two payments.

First payment10,000

Second payment6,000

First payment

10000 lei

Second payment

6000 lei

Data from the article text

Further suspects and a separate case

The DNA said that criminal investigation acts are also under way against other people in the same file. Separately, a senior counsellor at the General Directorate for Social Assistance and Child Protection (DGASPC) Sector 2 was placed under judicial control for 60 days in November 2026. He is accused of attempted fraud after allegedly asking a woman for money with a promise to help her obtain social housing. The woman reported him to police, and on 2 November he was caught in the act, allegedly receiving an envelope containing 2,000 lei. He was held for 24 hours at Police Section 9, and the inquiry continues under the prosecutor's office attached to the Sector 2 Court.

What comes next

The pretrial arrest of Băviță and Trușcă runs for 30 days from 4 November 2026. The DNA says its evidence gathering is ongoing, and its communiqué states that the presumption of innocence applies to the suspects. The sources do not say when the case would go to trial or whether the suspects will challenge the detention. The DGASPC counsellor's judicial control also runs for 60 days, and his case remains open under the supervision of prosecutors.