The biggest challenge Romania is facing at the moment is keeping the judges’ and prosecutors’ independence, which are vital for anticorruption prosecutors to remain effective, the national Anticorruption Directorate – DNA’s chief prosecutor Laura Codruta Kovesi said in a speech at the United Nations (UN).

She said that the DNA’s investigations have been welcomed with hope and confidence by the Romanian society but they also determined counter-reactions, such as the attempts to change the anticorruption legislation and decriminalize some offences, to limit the instruments used by prosecutors, local News.ro reported.

Kovesi also said that things have changed radically in Romania since the country joined the UN Convention against Corruption. From a country where corruption was generalized, Romania has become a model in its region on combatting corruption.

The DNA chief also pointed out that the institution has sent to court over 68 top-level officials in the last five years, 27 of whom received final sentences. Kovesi said that this triggered attempts to discredit the justice system through fake news attacks.

Justice minister Tudorel Toader rected to Kovesi’s speech at the UN and said that the recent acquittals of top-level officials sent to court by the DNA, the prescription in some corruption cases and the DNA’s abuses were not fake news.

editor@romania-insider.com