Court forces Romanian president to fire anti-graft prosecutor

BUCHAREST: Romania's Constitutional Court ruled Wednesday that President Klaus Iohannis must approve the government's dismissal of the country's top anti-corruption prosecutor Laura Kovesi.
"Romania's president will sign the decree for revoking the chief prosecutor of the DNA (anti-corruption unit), Mrs. Kovesi", said the court in a press release, ruling that he did not have the power to refuse the request.
Iohannis has previously said that Justice Minister Tudorel Toader's reasoning for wanting to remove Kovesi contained "weak arguments" and had defended Kovesi's work as a prosecutor.
In response the Romanian government took the case to the Constitutional Court.
The government accuses Kovesi of violating the constitution but Kovesi's supporters say she has been targeted for investigating corruption among Romania's political elite.
Toader launched the procedure to sack Kovesi in February, accusing her among other things of "damaging the image" of Romania by criticising the government's judicial reforms.
As well as sparking huge street protests at home, those reforms have raised worries abroad that Romania may be backsliding in its fight against corruption.
More than 108,000 people had signed an online petition calling on Iohannis not to dismiss Kovesi.
Earlier this year Kovesi said the agency had investigated a record number of cases in 2017, despite "unprecedented attacks" by political authorities.
Romania is one of the most corrupt countries in the EU and the bloc has placed tight oversight mechanisms on its judicial system. — AFP