A Romanian court ruled on July 18 that media tycoon and former politician Dan Voiculescu, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison in August 2014, should be released on parole after serving less than three years of his sentence. 

Although no longer politically active, Voiculescu can still exert a lot of influence on Romania politics through the media channels he indirectly controls.

He remains one of the most controversial tycoons in Romania, after being sentenced for the fraudulent privatisation of the Institute of Research for Food Sciences (ICA) and related actions.

Voiculescu was the head of the Conservative Party (PC) and the mastermind of the former USL ruling coalition. He and the TV channels he owned were some of biggest critics of former president Traian Basescu and the head of the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA), Laura Codruta Kovesi. 

A Bucharest court ruled on June 8 that Voiculescu could be released from prison, but the ruling was challenged by prosecutors, News.ro reported. The judges said at that time in their motivation that Voiculescu had served 1,408 days in prison out of his total 3,653-day sentence and that during his imprisonment he had helped with cleaning and has also written some scientific works.

The prosecutors claimed, while challenging the court’s decision, that Voiculescu had exhibited "normal" behavior during the imprisonment, not good behaviour, and stressed that he has not paid back the damage he caused to the Romanian state, according to digi24.ro. In response, Voiculescu’s lawyer said the state had seized all his assets, but has failed to sell them.