Magistrate Investigation Section Chief Rejects Second Request To Recuse Kovesi Case Prosecutor

This comes after SIIJ chief Gheorghe Stan also rejected the first request made by Kovesi, a former chief of the country’s National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA), in the case where she is suspected of several offences regarding the 2011 repatriation of a fugitive businessman.

On Monday, General Prosecutor Augustin Lazar also refused the former DNA chief’s request to remove Gheorghe Stan from procedures related to her case, citing concerns on his impartiality.

Laura Codruta Kovesi 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.

The prosecutor 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.