Prosecutor-in-chief of the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) Laura Codruta Kovesi requested on Wednesday the Superior Council of Magistrates (CSM) to conduct controls regarding the statements that President of the Senate Calin Popescu-Tariceanu made in Parliament, which she considers to be “extremely serious” against DNA.
“Under the provisions of the article 75 paragraph (1) of the Law No.303/2004, republished with the subsequent amendments and additions, regarding the statute of judges and prosecutors, the Prosecutor-in-chief of the National Anticorruption Directorate requests the Superior Council of Magistrates to conduct controls regarding the situation noticed in respect to the statements made by Mr Calin Popescu-Tariceanu, President of Romania’s Senate, in Parliament, during a press statement, on 22.11.2017, taken over by the majority of Romania’s mass-media institutions,” a release of DNA sent to issued on Wednesday reveals.
According to DNA, “the seriousness” of Calin Popescu-Tariceanu’s attack “grows every day,” despite some CSM decisions that took notice of this matter.
DNA stated that the Senate President made the following “extremely serious” statements: “… DNA has become a pathetic political instrument. Everything that DNA did over the last period becomes clear as daylight, it makes selective justice and … I no longer have any doubt about it. Increasingly more Romanians see this thing, this very serious matter, because it leads to losing the confidence into a fundamental institution such as justice is. DNA does a lot of harm to justice and also to the perception which Romanians have and it does a lot of harm also to the imagine that we try to project abroad.”
“The abovementioned statements are extremely serious, able to potentially bring a serious damage to an institution with a constitutional statute, whose attributions are to investigate high level acts of corruption, being the only legal authority to investigate corruption offenses that are committed, amongst others, by senators, deputies, Romanian members of the European Parliament, members of the Government, state secretaries, or undersecretaries of state and assimilated offices, ministers’ counselors,” DNA informs.
