The National Anticorruption Directorate responds to accusations
Anticorruption prosecutors dont fake evidence and observe the law, anticorruption chief prosecutor Laura Codruta Kovesi has told the media.
Ştefan Stoica, 15.02.2018, 13:16
The public scandal revolving around the National Anticorruption Directorate started after former Social-Democrat MP Vlad Cosma claimed that prosecutors with the Ploiesti branch of the National Anticorruption Directorate used him to fake evidence against former Social-Democrat Prime Minister Victor Ponta and former MP Sebastian Ghita, who in the meantime fled to Serbia. Cosma has grounded his accusations on a series of recordings which are yet to be authenticated. The anticorruption chief prosecutor Laura Codruta Kovesi called a press conference to respond to the accusations, saying that judges found no irregularities in the way anticorruption prosecutors in Ploiesti handled the case, whereby Vlad and Mircea Cosma, the latter his father, were sentenced to 5 and 8 years in prison, respectively, in first instance.
Laura Codruta Kovesi: “The Judicial Inspection Corps is currently conducting an investigation. I have been asked what I did and now I respond: I did what the law stipulates. Anticorruption prosecutors do not fake evidence. They observe the law when gathering evidence. The manner in which prosecutors carry out a criminal investigation is subject to judicial control. Judges examine all our investigations to see if prosecutors observe the law when filing evidence”.
The National Anticorruption Directorate, Laura Codruta Kovesi went on to say, has its own verification mechanisms, so that if a prosecutor breaks the law, the blame should not be cast on the entire institution. Most of these accusations, aimed at undermining the activity of the Directorate, come from people who themselves are subject to investigation, the chief prosecutor has recalled. Kovesi believes this is an attack on the justice system designed to weaken state institutions and humiliate Romanian citizens. It is a festival of false or partially false declarations, coming from people who’ve had run-ins with the law.
Laura Codruta Kovesi said she has no reasons to step down. Also referring to a campaign targeting Romania’s judicial institutions, Prosecutor General Augustin Lazar disavowed what he believes to be actions meant to cause public unrest, instigated by certain politicians who are undergoing criminal proceedings with the purpose of having prosecutors removed from key leadership positions. In turn, the president of the Superior Council of Magistracy, Simona Camelia Marcu, believes the current public debate focusing on the activity of the National Anticorruption Directorate could diminish the authority of courts and hinder judicial proceedings. On the other hand, Prime Minister Viorica Dancila refrained from commenting on the possible demise of chief prosecutor Kovesi, demanded by many voices in the ruling coalition.
Viorica Dancila: “I can’t say whether a person should or should not be in charge of the National Anticorruption Directorate. The important thing is that citizens continue to trust state institutions and the justice system. We shouldn’t accuse the entire justice system, but citizens’ trust in this system must be restored. I for one, as Prime Minister of Romania, am concerned and uncomfortable with the way evidence can be brought against a prime minister”.
We recall that the left-of-center ruling coalition in Romania, made up of the Social-Democratic Party and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats, have referred to the existence of a so-called “parallel state”, made up of prosecutors and secret agents who are trying to fabricate evidence and compromise political leaders in the Parliament majority. Some political pundits say the repeated attacks on the National Anticorruption Directorate, coming from people of doubtful reliability, adding to the controversial modifications brought the justice laws, are part of a poorly dissimulated effort to subordinate the justice system to political party interests.
