The Antena 3 news station and several of its journalists must pay RON 300,000 (EUR 64,000) worth of moral damages to Laura Codruta Kovesi, the chief prosecutor of Romania’s National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA), the Ploiesti Court of Appeal ruled on Tuesday, March 20.

The court also obliged the TV station to publish the sentence three days in a row and publicly apologize to Kovesi. The sentence is not final, however, and can be challenged at a higher court, local News.ro reported.

The Bucharest Court also decided, in October 2015, that the DNA chief should receive RON 250,000 worth of moral damages from Antena 3 and its journalists, who had accused her of covering up the investigation against former president Traian Basescu’s brother.

Antena 3 director Mihai Gadea said he was shocked by this decision.

“The message is clear. After I have taken your headquarters, I will take your apartments as well,” Gadea said.

The DNA obtained in August 2014 a 10-year jail sentence against Antena Group owner Dan Voiculescu in a case related to the illegal privatization of an agriculture research institute in Bucharest. The sentence also provided that Voiculescu had to cover the EUR 60 million damage caused to the state. Following this sentence, the state seized several assets Voiculescu owned in Bucharest, including the Antena 3 headquarters.

Dan Voiculescu was released in July 2017, after serving three years of his ten-year sentence. Antena 3 has continued its attacks against the DNA chief prosecutor in recent years.

editor@romania-insider.com