Disciplinary action against Romanian prosecutors who investigated controversial ordinance on justice

The famous emergency ordinance 13 (OUG 13), which triggered massive street protests earlier this year after the previous Government adopted it in a late-night meeting, has now come back to haunt three prosecutors from the National Anticorruption Department (DNA). Marius Bulancea, Paul Dumitriu, and Jean Uncheselu are the DNA prosecutors who are now facing a disciplinary investigation related to how they did their jobs in the case related to the OUG 13, reports local Digi24. The Superior Council of Magistracy’s department for prosecutors will carry out the disciplinary investigation against them, as they are suspected of having done their jobs in bad faith or with serious negligence. The Judicial Inspection Department took this decision while verifying a complaint made by an online publication, which was targeting the DNA chief prosecutor Laura Codruta Kovesi and Romania's General Prosecutor Augustin Lazar. In early-February, the DNA decided to open an investigation into how the previous Government led by Sorin Grindeanu adopted the emergency ordinance 13, which would have brought serious changes to the Criminal Code. However, at the end of the same month, referring to this investigation, the Constitutional Court said that there was a legal conflict between the Government and DNA. Thus, the anticorruption prosecutors closed part of the case and sent the rest to the General Prosecutor’s Office. The DNA claimed at that time that some of the opinions given for the adoption of OUG 13 were destroyed or stolen from the Ministry of Justice, and that other documents were forged. Earlier this week, the General Prosecutor’s Office closed its investigation on the emergency ordinance, and sent a part of the case back to the DNA, according to the local media. The anticorruption prosecutors will further investigate the offence of favoring the perpetrator. Irina Marica, irina.marica@romania-insider.com