Waiting for reports on justice
Public debates in Romania are again dominated by what was called the PSD-vs-DNA soap opera
Bogdan Matei, 16.02.2018, 13:32
A new scandal fraught with tough blows has been opposing politicians, once influential people, and anti-corruption investigators, but whose working methods have come under scrutiny in Romania these days. The venue is Prahova in the south of the country, one of Romania’s richest counties thanks to its oil reserves and top mountain resorts, a place also described by the local papers as the feud of the Social-Democratic Cosma dynasty.
Mircea Cosma, the former county council chairman who spent more than a decade in office, and his son, Vlad, a former MP, have been given 5 and 8-year prison sentences respectively in a corruption file prosecuted by the National Anti-corruption Directorate (DNA).
Cornered, the Cosma family struck back accusing the prosecutors of having used their case to temper with evidence against other Social Democrats, the former Prime Minister Victor Ponta and the former Prahova MP Sebastian Ghita, who fled to the neighboring Serbia.
DNA chief prosecutor, Laura Codruta Kovesi, has vehemently denied the allegations, carried by various newspapers, and has again stated that the Directorate’s activity is unfolding strictly in compliance with the law.
Romania’s Justice Minister, Tudorel Toader, who had made an emergency comeback from a visit he was paying to Japan, has announced that he will next week submit to Parliament, in plenary session, an assessment over the activities of the General Prosecutor’s Office, DNA and the Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism, DIICOT. Toader explains that he has resorted to this solution because under the law he has to brief the MPs over the activity of these institutions and also because he was asked by the Prime Minister amid the Prahova scandal.
Romanian Prime Minister Viorica Dancila: “Even if it’s about a minister, a Prime Minister or a common citizen, things like these must be cleared. A verification of these things should not drag on; we need a legal point of view on these aspects because otherwise all these may erode people’s trust in the country’s legal system, something I don’t believe should happen.”
Romania’s President Klaus Iohannis has reiterated his full confidence in the country’s National Anti-corruption Directorate. Using terms quite unusual for his speeches, the president presented his view of the Prahova scandal.
Klaus Iohannis: “Some offenders are making a desperate attempt to discredit the National Anti-corruption Directorate and its leadership. In my opinion such an attempt is pathetic and unconvincing. You know my opinion of the DNA’s activity but I’d like to say it again: the National Anti-corruption Directorate and its leadership are doing a great job.”
President Iohannis has added that he doesn’t see any reasons for sacking chief prosecutor Kovesi, although her media and political opponents have consistently been calling for her resignation.
