National Anti-corruption Directorate

The Supreme Court on Thursday sentenced national leader of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), major at rule, Liviu Dragnea to three years and six months in jail for fictitiously hiring two persons to work with the DGASPC Teleorman child protection and social assistance directorate who were actually working for the local PSD organisation. The ruling is not final.

Senate Chairman Calin Popescu-Tariceanu said on Friday that in drafting the numerous reports of the last 11 years on the progress under the Co-operation and Verification Mechanism (CVM), the European Commission relied almost exclusively on the distorted image provided by coercive bodies of the Romanian state.

Justice Minister Tudorel Toader presented on Wednesday his correspondence with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) that shows Drago Kos is not the head of the OSCE anti-corruption body, and the latter's statements would have not been made on behalf of the organisation.

Considering the decision of Romania's Constitutional Court in the case of the National Anti-corruption Directorate (DNA) head Laura Codruta Kovesi, the President of Romania, Klaus Iohannis should proceed to revoking the chief-prosecutor from office, as requested by the Justice Minister, Tudorel Toader, on Wednesday said the Senate's President, Calin Popescu-Tariceanu.

Romania's Constitutional Court ruled on Wednesday that the country's President, Klaus Iohannis, cannot prevent the government from firing the chief anti-corruption prosecutor Laura Codruta Kovesi.

Recent Romanian Supreme Court rulings that acquitted several high-ranking politicians in some of the country's most notorious graft cases risk damaging prosecutors' credibility - at a time when they are battling political moves to limit their independence, analysts warn.

Chief Prosecutor of Romania's National Anti-Corruption Directorate (DNA) Laura Codruta Kovesi is scheduled to deliver a speech in New York on Wednesday at a high-level debate to be organised by the United Nations General Assembly.

More than 2,000 people are participating on Saturday evening, around 7 pm, in the protest called "We want Europe, not a Dictatorship," in the Victoriei Square, downtown the Capital City of Bucharest

President Klaus Iohnnis on Wednesday said that in Romania "there are voices very easily blaming Brussels for almost anything," showing that this is "the easiest discourse" from those who are disturbed by the European standards of authentic democracy.

Romania's Anti-Discrimination Council on Wednesday fined the country's centre-right President, Klaus Iohannis, for calling politicians investigated for corruption "criminals" in a speech defending anti-graft institutions and prosecutors.

"The term 'criminal' that the President used in his speech exceeds the limits of free speech," a press release issued by the council stated.