Former chief corruption prosecutor demands two prosecutors investigating her be recused

Former head of the National Anti-Corruption Directorate (DNA) Laura Codruta Kovesi said Friday that she filed two appeals with the Attorney General's Office for the recusal of prosecutor Adina Florea and of the head of the Magistrates' Investigation Section.

"I was informed about the charges against me and that I was a suspect. I filed two requests for the recusal of the case prosecutor and of the chief prosecutor of the section. After informing me, the chief prosecutor told me they would notify me about their response to the two requests for recusal. The reasons [for recusal] are the ones set out in the Code of Criminal Procedure, namely challenged impartiality," Kovesi said as she left the Attorney General's Office, where he was called in a case regarding the return to Romania of disgraced investor Nicolae Popa, manager of a late national investment fund.

She added that no preventive measures had been taken in the case.

Kovesi was greeted upon leaving by a throng of sympathisers who encouraged her. They shouted "Codruta, do not forget, we are on your side!" "PSD - red plague", '' Tudorel, resign!''.

Her fans had laid tulips for her on the stairs to the Attorney General's Office. AGERPRES (RO - author: Eusebi Manolache, editor: Georgiana Tanasescu; EN - author: Corneliu-Aurelian Colceriu, editor: Adina Panaitescu)