President Klaus Iohannis on Thursday appointed three chief prosecutors to head the country’s top investigative agencies, after a key judiciary group gave a negative vote to two of the candidates.
Crin Bologa will be the new head of the National Anti-corruption Directorate, the DNA, the agency that investigates and prosecutes official corruption, ending 18 months of interim leadership.
Bologa, a deputy prosecutor in the county of Salaj, will make sure that the „fight against corruption continues energetically,” according to Justice Minister Catalin Predoiu who nominated him in January.
Bologa wants more protection for suspects from the media and has proposed a special entrance to the anti-corruption agency where suspects can’t be filmed.
He opposes the creation of a special department to investigate magistrates for wrongdoing which he calls „an offense to honest prosecutors and judges.”
Bologa replaces Laura Codruta Kovesi as head of the DNA. She was fired by the previous Social Democrat government in July 2018, a move that drew widespread criticism in Romania and the rest of the European Union.
Kovesi had won a reputation as a tough anti-graft crusader in Romania, one of the most corrupt countries in the EU. In September 2019, she was named the EU’s first fraud prosecutor.
His nomination was approved by the Superior Council of Magistrates.
Iohannis also appointed Gabriela Scutea as the head of the general prosecution office and Giorgiana Hosu as the head of the anti-mafia Directorate for Investigation of Organized Crime and Terrorism, or DIICOT.
Both failed to win the non-binding approval of the magistrates’ group, an independent body governing the judicial system which guarantees the independence of the judiciary.
However, the justice minister wrote to Iohannis saying that he stood by the two nominees saying they were legally qualified for the posts and urged the president to sign off on all appointments.
But head of the Save Romania Union party, Dan Barna, called the two appointments “disappointing” and asked Iohannis and Predoiu to explain why they had disregarded the magistrates’ council.
