A Romanian court ordered on Wednesday the brother of outgoing president Traian Basescu released from custody and placed under house arrest during his trial on charges he accepted bribes from a mobster.

Mircea Basescu has been detained since June over suspicions he took a 250,000-euro ($340,000) payoff in 2011 to intervene on behalf of a crime boss on trial for attempted murder.

Traian Basescu: brother under house arrest for graft

The president’s 60-year-old brother and the man who allegedly delivered the cash, Marian Capatina, had asked several times to be allowed to be detained at home rather than in jail.

Anti-graft prosecutors allege Mircea Basescu, whose trial began November 14, used his ties to the president to convince crime boss Sandu Anghel that he could get the charges dropped.

Anghel was ultimately sentenced to eight years and nine months in jail by the Supreme Court in May 2013.

The case has been an embarrassment for Traian Basescu, who made fighting corruption a centrepiece of his 10-year presidency.

He repeatedly denied any knowledge of the bribes and fought off demands from the opposition for his resignation.

The judiciary in the poor EU member state has stepped up its fight against high-level graft in recent years with the help of Brussels.

Basescu will turn over the reins of power to president elect Klaus Iohannis on December 21.

In a shock election victory, Iohannis beat the favourite, Prime Minister Victor Ponta, on a pledge to take on graft in the former communist country.