Graft Acquittals Threaten Romanian Prosecutors' Image

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.

On Tuesday, the court acquitted Senate Speaker and former Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu of lying under oath in a real estate graft trial involving several senior officials.

The ruling was not final, but Tariceanu, one of the staunchest critics of Romania's powerful National Anti-Corruption Directorate, DNA, and its chief prosecutor, Laura Codruta Kovesi, said after his acquittal that his "attempts to unmask abuses" by the "deep state" had cost him a lot both politically and personally. "This is a special day I never thought I'd live to see," he said on Tuesday.

It was the fourth acquittal in a high-profile graft case this year. On May 10, former prime minister Victor Ponta and his associate, Senator Dan Sova, escaped charges of forgery, money laundering and accessory to tax evasion. 

Ponta, who lost his position as head of the Social Democrat Party due to the investigation in 2015, write on Facebook after Tariceanu's acquittal that he believed in the Senate Speaker's innocence.

"I salute the fact that we have judges who can stand up to any pressure from outside the court and only obey the law and its principles," he wrote.

"I wonder, however, what happens to those who issue indictments without proper evidence and without knowing the law. Nothing? That's not normal for the rule of law," he added.

On March 5, the Supreme Court acquitted opposition National Liberal Party leader Ludovic Orban of requesting 50,000 euros from a businessman during the...

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