Bucharest Mayor, "Mr. 10 Percent", behind bars

Bucharest Mayor Sorin Oprescu was arrested last night on suspicion of taking bribes, the Romanian National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) announced, reports the Patria news agency.

Since 2013, the group to which Oprescu belonged allegedly "created a system within the local administration whereby companies wishing to obtain contracts with public institutions subordinate to the mayor had to give officials a portion of the profit generated by those contracts," the DNA states.

Ten percent of the gross profit always went directly to the mayor, it adds. On Saturday, a high-ranking official allegedly gave the 63-year-old mayor 25,000 euros out of a total of 60,000 euros he had requested from four businessmen for Oprescu.

Oprescu has been detained for 24 hours, and a decision will be made on Sunday whether he will remain in custody. In recent years, several former ministers, deputies, senators, and judges have been convicted of corruption in Romania.

The 63-year-old Oprescu has been the mayor of Bucharest since 2008 and ran for president of Romania in 2009, writes Jutarnji.