Kovesi Responds to New Charges: Section Prosecutor Wants Media Case

Regarding SIIJ accusations that she used internal orders to coordinate illegal activity within the anticorruption agency, the former DNA chief said that internal orders within the agency are regulated and cannot be considered illegal, and that the document quoted by the section as being an order was actually a summary of a DNA internal work meeting.

“Through that document I presented all prosecutors the manner in which a situation was solved by the court. The essence of that summary was that the judge must be announced by the prosecutor in cases where there is the same witness multiple times (…) What is most relevant is the fact that the document was issued several months AFTER the witnesses were interviewed by the Ploiesti Territorial Service, so it is impossible for the document to determine any kind of previous behavior from DNA prosecutors,” the prosecutor said.

Kovesi also denied any link with a second charge mentioned by the SIIJ, in which she was accused of determining a lower-ranking DNA section chief to approve an illegal indictment against multiple individuals, also pointing that the indictment itself was deemed legal by the country’s Supreme Court.

“All of the (section’s, ed.) activity was made while impeding my legal rights. I did not have access to the detailed charges, as the document through which the charges were issued was not sent to me. The manner in which the prosecution took place and is still taking place in this case is a smear for the judiciary because, obviously, SIIJ is not seeking to file valid evidence, conforming with the principle of loyalty, but rather to create an appearance of guilt in order to influence public opinion,” the prosecutor concluded.

The judicial offences section brought on Friday new accusations against former anticorruption chief Laura Codruta Kovesi, including one charge of determining a local chief prosecutor to green-light an illegal indictment.

In a statement, the section announced that the former National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) chief will be prosecuted for establishing an organized crime group and five other charges of complicity to unjust repression through 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 prosecuted in the same case with 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.

 

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