BUCHAREST, March 29 — Romanian magistrate Laura Codruta Kovesi, a hot favourite to become the EU’s first-ever top prosecutor, has been indicted on corruption charges, a judicial source told AFP.
Considered a symbol of the fight against corruption but facing hostility from the Romanian government, Kovesi received the news during a six-hour hearing yesterday in front of a special panel charged with investigating magistrates.
The charges may darken relations between European leaders and Bucharest, one of the EU’s most corrupt states.
After the hearing, Kovesi told reporters that prosecutors had been barred from publicly discussing the specifics of the case.
But she said of the charges: “It’s a measure intended to silence me, to harass all of us in the judicial system who did our job.
“Probably some people are in such despair that I might get this job (of chief EU prosecutor) that I’m not allowed to speak to the media anymore.”
Kovesi became a household name as head of Romania’s National Anti-Corruption Directorate (DNA), which she led from 2013 to 2018 before being controversially removed at the government’s behest.
She was questioned in two different cases. In one she is accused of abuse of office, bribery and giving false testimony, charges she rejects.
The prosecutor’s office has not yet said in which case she has been charged, but is expected to make a statement today.
A source told AFP that during the investigation Kovesi would be forbidden from exercising her profession and would have to report regularly to police in Bucharest.
Local media reported she would also not be allowed to leave the country.
Kovesi is expected to challenge these measures, which would complicate her candidacy for head of the new European Prosecutor’s Office — responsible for investigating the misuse of EU funds and VAT fraud between EU member states.
Clashes with the EU
The former anti-graft chief has been locked in an escalating battle with Romania’s left-wing government in the last few years.
The rows have overshadowed Romania’s first-ever term as president of the European Union, with the government in Bucharest making clear its opposition to Kovesi taking the new job in Brussels.
During her time as head of the DNA, hundreds of elected officials were convicted of corruption offences, earning her the enmity of many in Romania’s political class and criticism that she had overstepped her mandate.
Many Romanians retain a positive view of her as a champion in the fight to rid the country of endemic corruption.
The government has repeatedly clashed with the EU over the ruling Social Democratic Party’s proposed judicial reforms, which the EU Commission believes will hamper the fight against corruption.
The overhaul of the judicial system is also being fought by the country’s centre-right President Klaus Iohannis, who has called for a referendum on the proposals.
The government has sought to dissuade other EU countries from appointing 45-year-old Kovesi to lead the European prosecutor’s office, meant to be in place by the end of 2020.
MEPs defied Bucharest and threw their support behind the Romanian magistrate, but some member states have backed Kovesi’s French rival Jean-Francois Bohnert.
The appointment is currently the subject of final EU negotiations. — AFP
