No candidate to replace Romania's dismissed chief anti-corruption prosecutor

Romania’s Justice Ministry has received no resume for the position of chief prosecutor of the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA), justice minister Tudorel Toader announced on Sunday, July 22, Mediafax reported. However, the minister was confident that the candidates interested in this job would submit their files on Monday, before the deadline. Otherwise, the ministry will resume the selection process. Former DNA chief Laura Codruta Kovesi, a symbol of the fight against top-level corruption in Romania, was revoked by president Iohannis at the beginning of this month, after justice minister Tudorel Toader asked for her dismissal in February. The president didn’t want to remove Kovesi from office, but the Constitutional Court ruled that the justice minister had authority over the prosecutors and that the president didn’t have the power to assess if the minister’s decision was opportune or not. For more than a year, Kovesi’s activity has been challenged by the ruling coalition, who accused her of going after top-level politicians for image purposes and of being part of a so-called “shadow state” that wanted to overthrow the legitimate power in Romania. The Economist writes about Romania’s “Miss justice” Romania’s former DNA chief prosecutor will continue anticorruption fight at new job editor@romania-insider.com