Romania's prime minister has been charged with corruption and will stand trial.

Victor Ponta was formally indicted on Thursday, according to a spokeswoman for the anti-corruption prosecutors' office.

The case will now be handled by the country's top court.

Ponta will not be arrested, spokeswoman Livia Sapalcan told The Associated Press.

Prosecutors first indicted Ponta in July on charges including tax evasion, money-laundering, conflict of interest and making false statements while he was working as a lawyer in 2007 and 2008. He denies wrongdoing.

He is the first sitting Romanian prime minister to be indicted and have his assets seized.

Four other people are also indicted and will stand trial in the same case.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.