FILE – A Jan. 12, 2011 file picture shows former Romanian diplomat Silviu Ionescu at a court room in Bucharest, Romania. A Romanian court on Wednesday, March 27, 2013, handed down a three-year prison sentence to the former Romanian diplomat for killing a man in a hit-and-run accident in Singapore, where he had been an embassy attache. Neither Ionescu nor his attorneys were present. Ionescu had testified that he had been set up by authorities in the Asian city-state. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda, File)
BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — A Romanian court has handed down a three-year prison sentence to a former Romanian diplomat for killing a man in a hit-and-run accident in Singapore, where he had been an embassy attache.
A Bucharest district court sentenced Silviu Ionescu on Wednesday in a ruling that can be appealed. Neither Ionescu nor his attorneys were present.
Ionescu had testified that he had been set up by authorities in the Asian city-state.
He was accused of hitting two pedestrians with his car early on Dec. 15, 2009, and then hitting and injuring a third person while driving away. One man died 10 days later.
Ionescu returned to Romania immediately after the accident, citing diplomatic immunity. He said he had not been driving the embassy vehicle because it had been stolen.
