Romania's Leaders Will Risk Everything to Stop Kovesi

He also told the European Parliament that it was not him that had revoked Kovesi but the President - which is only technically correct; he lacked the power to make that decision.

After Kovesi's candidacy drew much support throughout the EU, with France and Germany stating that they might pull their candidates from the race, the PSD stepped up its efforts.

Justice Minister of Romania, Tudorel Toader speaks during a press conference at the end of the second day of the EU Internal Affairs and Justice Ministers informal meeting, at the Parliament Palace in Bucharest, Romania, 2019. Photo: EPA-EFE/ROBERT 

Through one of its MEPs, Emilian Pavel, it emailed allegations to all MEPs about Kovesi in the hope of containing the support she had gathered.

The email claimed she would employ the same allegedly abusive methods in her new post as she had done in Romania.

The domestic drama peaked last Friday when Kovesi was subpoenaed before the Department for the Investigation of Criminal Offences in the Judiciary.

This is a new government agency dealing with corruption amongst the judiciary, and is widely regarded as a tool to control the magistracy.

The subpoena came on the same day that Kovesi was supposed to depart for Brussels for her interview.

It followed a complaint from a fugitive media tycoon and former MP, Sebastian Ghita, who, following his conviction for corruption, had fled to Serbia and obtained asylum.

At the hearing, Kovesi was informed that she was a suspect in a criminal investigation for abuse of office, bribery and untrue testimony.

The allegation is that she took a bribe from Ghita in the form of covering transport costs to extradite a businessman convicted of embezzlement in another case, Nicolae Popa...

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