Kovesi, interviewed for another term in office as DNA's chief prosecutor

Head of the National Anti-Corruption Directorate (DNA) Laura Codruta Kovesi will be interviewed today by the Prosecution Department of the Supreme Council of Magistrates (CSM) for another term in office as DNA's chief prosecutor. 

The interview had been initially scheduled for March 24, but it was postponed upon the request of Justice Minister Raluca Pruna as the minister had to go to Brussels for an extraordinary meeting of the EU's Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) following terror attacks in Brussels. 

Pruna had submitted to CSM on February 29 a proposal for reappointing Kovesi as DNA chief prosecutor. 

Investigations into high-level corruption, retrieval of damages and extended powers of confiscation are some of the priorities included in the management project drawn up by Kovesi for reappointment that is posted on the website of CSM. Improving prosecution quality as well as active and professional support for cases brought to court also features as an objective in Kovesi's project. 

If reappointed, Kovesi will continue to reject any actions aimed at intimidating or discrediting prosecutors. She also says she will seek a more active involvement in the public debates over the laws with a direct impact on prosecutors, while also campaigning for the development of a technical service department at DNA by getting additional human and material resources in the wake of a ruling by Constitutional Court of Romania (CCR) that phone surveillance by intelligence services previous to criminal prosecution is unconstitutional. 

Under the law, the DNA chief prosecutor is named by the President upon a prosomal from the justice minister and on a consultative opinion of CSM, for a three-year term in office. Agerpres