Prosecutors have disjointed the case regarding PM Ponta’s conflict of interest, as other persons who are still investigated are targeted in this file, judicial sources told Agepres. At the same time, judge Cristina Rotaru from the High Court of Cassation and Justice (Romania’s Supreme Court) who was assigned the premier’s file, filed a request to withdraw from this case due to her incompatibility.
The judge’s request has been admitted, while the file will be transiently assigned to another judge.
PM Victor Ponta was indicted on Thursday for 17 felonies of forgery in deeds by private signature, complicity to money laundering and tax evasion that would have been committed when Ponta was a lawyer, representative of his private practice.
The prime minister is sent to court next to other four persons, among whom there are also senator Dan Sova and the director of Rovinari Complex. Sova has been subject to legal restrictions pending trial in Turceni-Rovinari case, while Ponta has been investigated at large.
President Iohannis requested for the prime minister’s resignation one more time on Thursday.
Few hours after the National Anti-corruption Directorate informed about his indictment, Ponta replied in a Facebook post: “(…) the only problem of the country is a totally unprofessional prosecutor’s obsession to remark in his career by inventing untrue deeds and situations that happened 10 years ago.”
In retort tot he premier’s statements, DNA asked the Superior Council of Magistracy to analyze them and decide if they harm the justice independence.
“That statement is the more serious that the documents drafted by the prosecutor are checked by his chiefs, according to the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code. So, the assertions made by Ponta Victor-Viorel as prime minister have a special impact on the public opinion, and could undermine and affect the institution’s where the prosecutor is working, as well as the judiciary’s independence,” reads a DNA press release.