Kovesi Accused of Determining Local Chief Prosecutor to Green-light Illegal Indictment

Romania’s Section for Investigating Judicial Offences (SIIJ) published on Friday new accusations brought against former anticorruption chief Laura Codruta Kovesi, including one charge of determining a local chief prosecutor to green-light an illegal indictment.

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In a statement, the section announced that the former National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) chief will be prosecuted for establishing an organized crime group and for five charges of complicity to unjust repression by improper participation.

SIIJ prosecutors accuse Kovesi that she led, between 2015 and 2016, a crime group formed out of two prosecutors and a judiciary police officer, which later incorporated three other prosecutors and another officer. The group would have coordinated to commit offences of abusive prosecution, unjust repression, influencing statements, misleading judiciary bodies and forgery, according to the statement.

In the same period, the former DNA chief would have determined a local agency chief prosecutor to green-light an illegal and baseless indictment, resulting in the arraignment of five individuals.

Judicial sources confirmed for MEDIAFAX on Thursday that Kovesi is a suspect in the case which also involves former DNA Ploiesti prosecutors Mircea Negulescu and Lucian Onea, who are accused of threatening witnesses and forging evidence to file a fake denunciation.

This is the second case the section launched against the former DNA chief, after she was accused in February of multiple offences regarding the 2011 repatriation of a fugitive businessman.

The prosecutor denied the accusations and said that her rights to defense were infringed on Thursday, as she was not allowed access to the case file and was shown an official record of the charges which was not signed by the case prosecutor.

Kovesi accused a campaign to derail her bid to become the first chief prosecutor of the upcoming European Public Prosecutor’s Office, as she was officially proposed by the European Parliament for the office. A Parliament delegation launched negotiations with the EU Council on Thursday to agree on a common nominee for the office, with the latter body supporting French prosecutor Jean Francois Bohnert for the role.

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