Ex-Romanian lawmaker jailed for bribing voters with fried chicken

A former member of Romania’s Parliament has been sentenced to a two-year jail term for bribing voters with 60 tons of fried chicken.

According to reports from the UK-based news site The Telegraph, the former legislator, Florin Popescu, purposely distributed the food to poor people in the country as an attempt to win another term as council leader during the 2012 elections.

Investigators revealed that on April 5, 2012 several people sent by Popescu loaded fried chickens into vans and took them to various locations where they were distributed.

“All the packages of chicken were distributed for election purposes,” detectives said.

The report said a Bucharest court placed the condition of no parole on Popescu’s sentence while also rejecting an appeal by the disgraced politician during the culmination of a case, which won him the nickname “Chicken Baron”.

The case first came to light after the chicken producer reported the politician to authorities.