DNA head Kovesi won’t comment Ponta’s statements on Dragnea. Gigina case, almost over

The chief prosecutor of the National Anti-corruption Directorate (DNA), Laura Codruta Kovesi said she “could not enter into a dialogue with defendants” while asked about former PM Ponta’s statements that he would have seen PSD chairman Liviu Dragnea ‘asking Kovesi and Coldea to help him out with his criminal file.’

In an interview made within the Once Upon the Time in Romania project, conducted by Initiative Romania, in partnership with Vice magazine, the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom and the Canada Embassy, the anti-corruption head talked about the files instrumented by the anti-corruption prosecutors, but also about the ex-PM Ponta’s alleged disclosures on Liviu Dragnea.

“I won’t comment what defendants or politicians are saying in the public (…) For about two years, there is a trend that certain defendants should claim all kind of alleged or invented situations, which are not true or are not compliant with the reality, and should make all kind of statements. I won’t comment it. As a magistrate, I have a reserve duty and cannot enter into dialogue with defendants, prosecuted or investigated persons, or with the witnesses (…),” Kovesi stated.

However, the DNA chief prosecutor said that favouring PSD chair is out of the question. “As for the defendant referred to (e.n.-Liviu Dragnea), let’s not forget he was sent to court in 2013, after I took over the position of DNA chief prosecutor, he was convicted in a file, then he was again indicted in another case, so I don’t think anyone can say he had been favored in a way or another, at least as long as I held the DNA chief prosecutor position,” Kovesi said.

Gigina file, delayed by the CCR, Kovesi vows it will be solved by the year-end

The DNA head also said the decision of the Constitutional Court of Romania (CCR) on the abuse of office had delayed by several months the investigation in the file of traffic agent Bogdan Gigina’s death, where former Interior Minister Gabriel Oprea is facing charges. Moreover, another delay reason is the duration of the expertizes needed for the investigation.

However, Kovesi announced the investigation is almost over and a solution in this case is to be ruled by the end of the year.

“We have been constantly working on this file. We also investigate the premises and the circumstances in which the victim’s death occurred, practically we also have the crime of manslaughter in sight. A lot of expertize has been conducted in the file, included technical expertize,” she explained.

The ruling of the Constitutional Court on abuse of office prompted the DNA prosecutors to establish of a law, a primary legislation or an emergency ordinance had been broken in the Gigina case.