Court exonerates former chief anti-graft prosecutor Kovesi of disciplinary offence

A five-judge panel of the Supreme Court of Justice on Monday denied an appeal filed by the Judicial Inspection, ruling that former head of the National Anti-Corruption Directorate (DNA) Laura Codruta Kovesi did not commit a disciplinary offence when appointing her adviser, judge Dana Titian, to carry out an inspection at the DNA offices in Suceava and Iasi. The court's decision is final. In a dissenting opinion, two of the five magistrates, Corina Alina Corbu and Maria Hrudei, admitted the disciplinary action and sanctioning of Kovesi with a warning. Corbu is the chair of the Supreme Court's Administrative and Fiscal Complaints Division. She was sued by the DNA in 2014 for complicity to aiding and abetting and was finally acquitted in May 2018. Initially, in June 2018, the prosecutorial section of the Supreme Council of Magistrates (CSM) acquitted Kovesi of disciplinary misdemeanor in the same case, but the Judicial Inspection appealed, and the appeal was denied Monday by the Supreme Court. The Judicial Inspection argued that Kovesi issued an order in 2017 under which her adviser Dana Titian was appointed to be part of an inspection team at the local offices of DNA in Iasi and Suceava. According to the Judicial Inspection, Kovesi was not entitled to designate a judge to control the work of some prosecutors. There is another pending case opened by the Judicial Inspection at the Supreme Court against Kovesi in connection with her not attending hearings organised by a parliamentary committee inquiring into the 2009 presidential election. During her trial on March 18, Kovesi said she was not a perfect human, but she had never violated the law. AGERPRES (RO - author: Eusebi Manolache, editor: Florin Marin; EN - author: Corneliu-Aurelian Colceriu, editor: Adina Panaitescu)