April 10, 2016
An update on domestic and international news
Newsroom, 10.04.2016, 12:00
The chief prosecutor of the National Anti-Corruption Directorate in Romania, Laura Codruta Kovesi, says that from the perspective of the institution she runs, legislative amendments have to be made so as to prevent the people who received definitive sentences for corruption from remaining in office. In a talk show aired Sunday on a private television station, Kovesi underlined that one vulnerability of the National Anti-Corruption Directorate is the legislative framework that represents a real challenge. She explained that they are faced with the risk of certain legislative tools used by the DNA being amended overnight, of certain competences of the magistrates and prosecutors being changed. Another vulnerability mentioned by Ms Kovesi is the big number of files currently under investigation, a situation that could be partially improved by changing the legislation, in the sense of extending the applicability area of the guilty plea. Kovesi pointed out that, when there is solid evidence related to a certain crime, the anti-corruption prosecutors can decide on the confiscation of any assets or sums of money, even if these are located or placed outside Romania.
The Romanian President Klaus Iohannis will hold talks on Monday with the PM Dacian Ciolos on the issue of legislation on national security. The president will approach the same topic during the talks scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday with the parliamentary parties. Klaus Iohannis has recently said that the line legislation has to be modernized and improved and certain provisions should be replaced, as they no longer meet the current security context at global and national levels. Klaus Iohannis underlined that in drafting this legislation the authorities should take into account the citizens’ need for security and safety as well as their rights and freedoms.
The target of the Jihadist cell based in Brussels was to hit France once again, but they eventually took a last minute decision to launch attacks in the Belgian capital, the Belgian Federal Prosecutor’s Office reported on Sunday, thus confirming information in the mass media. Also on Sunday the Belgian authorities indicted Mohamed Abrini, a Belgian of Moroccan origin, for the March 22 terrorist attacks in Brussels. According to prosecutors he confessed he was the man with a hat searched after the March 22 explosions at the airport in Brussels. After almost 3 weeks of searches, the investigators arrested another man who allegedly participated in the attack on the Brussels subway. Abrini had already been indicted for perpetrating the terrorist attacks in Paris of November 2015.
John Kerry is the first acting American secretary of state to visit the Japanese city of Hiroshima, that was destroyed by an American atomic bomb during WWII in 1945. More than 130 thousand people died in Hiroshima after the launch of the bomb. John Kerry is also participating in the G7 summit hosted by Hiroshima. The foreign ministers of the G7 countries will talk, among other things, about measures to fight terrorism, maritime security issues and the situation in North Korea and the Middle East.
As many as 1,000 mayors from Romania and the Republic of Moldova participated on Sunday, for the first time, in a Joint Conference of the Local Communities Representatives hosted by Bucharest. The event saw the drafting of 450 twinning and partnership agreements between the Moldovan and Romanian local authorities. The agreements set the common actions for development in such fields as the economy, education, culture, sports and local public administration.
(news translated by Lacramioara Simion)
