Kovesi Files New Recusal Request For Case Prosecutor

The former chief of Romania’s National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) previously filed a similar request against Florea and section chief prosecutor Gheorghe Stan on Friday; the latter rejected the recusal request against the case prosecutor.

This comes shortly after General Prosecutor Augustin Lazar rejected Kovesi’s request to remove Stan from procedures involving her case, as the Criminal Procedure Code forbids the recusal of a higher-ranking prosecutor from a case where he is due to decide on another recusal request, according to judicial sources.

The former DNA chief prosecutor was informed on Friday by SIIJ prosecutors that she is suspected of several offences regarding the repatriation of a fugitive businessman in 2011, while she was serving as Romania’s general prosecutor.

Kovesi previously said last week that a subpoena was issued on her name after she informed the Supreme Court about the date on which she was initially supposed to attend a European Parliament hearing. The former DNA chief is favored to lead the upcoming European Public Prosecutor’s Office, after she was announced as first in the order of the selection committee’s preferences on a three-prosecutor shortlist for the role.

Case prosecutor Adina Florea confirmed on Thursday that the subpoena was issued in regards to charges pressed by fugitive businessman Sebastian Ghita, who accused Kovesi last year of requesting him to pay for a flight used to repatriate another convicted businessman, Nicolae Popa, from Indonesia in 2011.

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