President Klaus Iohannis approved on Friday, October 14, the National Anticorruption Department DNA’s request to start the criminal prosecution of former interior minister Gabriel Oprea.

DNA prosecutors accuse Oprea of manslaughter in the case of 28-year old policeman Bogdan Gigina who died in October last year while opening the way for the minister’s motorcade.

DNA previously asked the Senate’s approval to start the criminal prosecution of Oprea, as he was a senator at that time, but the senators voted against it. Their decision triggered many negative reactions, and even street protests that convinced Gabriel Oprea to resign from the Parliament.

Following Oprea’s resignation, the prosecutors filed a second request, addressed to President Klaus Iohannis, under the ministerial law.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com