Romanian President Klaus Iohannis on Monday bowed to government pressure to dismiss the chief anti-corruption prosecutor, Laura Codruta Kovesi, whose fight against high-level graft had angered the ruling party.
Romania’s President Klaus Iohannis bowed to government pressure and signed a decree on Monday, firing the country’s chief anti-graft prosecutor Laura Codruta Kovesi.
She was axed after months of mounting political tensions between her, the President and the Social Democrat-led government .
Her removal came five weeks after a Constitutional Court ruling obliged the President to fire her on the request of Justice Minister Tudorel Toader.
“The decisions of the Constitutional Court need to be implemented both by the President and the majority in the parliament,” the president’s spokeperson Madalina Dobrovoschi said on Monday.
“But the fight against corruption will not stop. Whatever the name of the DNA [National Anti-Corruption Directorate] chief prosecutor, this institution needs to ensure the fight against corruption takes place at the highest possible level,” Dobrovoschi added.
Toader asked the President in February to dismiss Kovesi as head of the National Anti-Corruption Directorate based on a cabinet report accusing her of abusing her powers and her subordinates.
Iohannis initially refused to fire her because he said he the minister’s arguments did not stand up.
The Social Democrat-led coalition leadership had been scheduled to meet on Monday to decide whether to start a procedure to suspend the President if he didn’t sign the decree sacking Kovesi.
Kovesi, 45, served as Romania’s anti-graft chief prosecutor since 2013. Previously, she was also the youngest prosecutor and Romania’s first woman Attorney General, in 2006.
During her mandate, the DNA prosecuted hundreds of public employees as well as public officials, including former prime ministers, ministers and MPs.
Since the Social Democrats won the December 2016 elections, the party has pushed to relax the fight against corruption that has put scores of politicians in jail.
This push has in turn sparked numerous street protests.
Many of Kovesi’s supporters criticized Iohannis on social media on Monday, accusing him of submitting too easily to the ruling party.
Kovesi meanwhile left the Anti-Corruption Directorate on Monday amid applause from fellow prosecutors.
She told journalists in a press conference that she will remain a prosecutor, although not in the Directorate. “Today’s episode is not a defeat,” Kovesi said at the press conference. “Corruption can be defeated,” she added.
“It’s common sense to notice that the political will is to block justice and investigations,” she said. “The DNA has proven that everybody is equal before the law and nobody is so powerful so that he can escape the law.”
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