Top European Prosecutor Candidate Subpoenaed By Magistrate Investigation Section

The former chief prosecutor of the country’s National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) accused that the subpoena is an attempt to derail her bid or the office by the hostile current political power.

She said that the subpoena was issued after she communicated the date on which she was initially supposed to attend a European Parliament hearing for the EPPO office.

“I was at the Supreme Court today (Wednesday, ed.) and filed a postponement request for a trial which was supposed to take place on Monday, and in that request I attached the plane ticket which showed I was going to leave the country on Friday. Not even a couple of hours after I filed this request I received this subpoena,” Kovesi told radio station Europa FM.

The former DNA chief said that she suspects the citation is in regards to the case in which fugitive businessman Sebastian Ghita accused her of irregularities in repatriating another convicted businessman, Nicolae Popa, in 2011. She accused that the trial is used as a reason to derail her bid for the European office and could affect her chances.

“It is obvious that through this method they are trying to stop me in this procedure, even through abuses they are trying to stop me from taking the office, because I have chances as the top-ranking candidate (…) I know that I am innocent, and that this an intermediate step before prosecution. It will be an image problem, for my credibility, but also for that of the institution which made this abusive action. (...) This could end up seriously affecting my candidacy,” the prosecutor said.

Kovesi also confirmed that she will attend the hearing in Brussels, which is now set for February 26.

Fugitive businessman Sebastian Ghita, who received political asylum in Serbia, pressed charges against Kovesi last year, stating that the prosecutor asked him to pay for the flight used to repatriate Nicolae Popa in 2011.

The prosecutor was announced on February 4 as the first in order of preferences on the three-candidate shortlist for EPPO chief prosecutor, as selected by a special committee.

The EPPO will be a EU-wide independent prosecutor’s office responsible with investigating, prosecuting and arraigning individuals who commit offences which damage the EU’s financial interests. The institution is currently expected to begin its activity before the end of 2020.

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