Laura Codruța Kövesi

Laura Codruța Kövesi (Romanian pronunciation: [ˈla.ura koˈdrut͡sa ˈkøveʃi]; born Laura Codruța Lascu on May 15, 1973) is the current chief prosecutor of Romania's National Anticorruption Directorate (Romanian: Direcția Națională Anticorupție) (DNA), a position she has held since 2013. Prior to this, Kövesi was the Prosecutor General of Romania (Procuror General), attached to the High Court of Cassation and Justice.

Upon appointment in 2006, Kövesi was the first woman and the youngest Prosecutor General in Romania's history. She is also the only public servant to have held the office of Prosecutor General for the entire duration of its term.

Kövesi was described by The Guardian in 2015 as a "quiet, unassuming chief prosecutor who is bringing in the scalps", leading "an anti-corruption drive quite unlike any other in eastern Europe – or the world for that matter". Her tenure as head of the DNA has substantially increased public confidence in the institution, both within Romania and across the EU, with a 2015 poll reporting that a high 60% of Romanians trust the DNA (compared to 61% for the Romanian Orthodox Church and only 11% for parliament). In February 2016, Kövesi was renominated for chief prosecutor by the Ministry of Justice, based on the positive results achieved under her leadership.

Biography

Born in Sfântu Gheorghe as Laura Codruța Lascu, Kövesi played professional basketball in her youth, at the club in Mediaș and in Sibiu, and was selected for the junior players national team which finished second in the 1989 FIBA Europe Under-16 Championship for Women. Codruța Lascu married Eduárd Kövesi, an ethnic Hungarian, and kept his surname even after their divorce in 2007. She can speak some English and Hungarian.

Before her position as Prosecutor General, Kövesi was the head of the Department of Investigation of Organized Crime and Terrorism Offences (ro) (DIICOT) branch in Sibiu County.

DNA leadership

Under Kövesi's leadership, the DNA made notable progress against high-level corruption in Romania. having prosecuted dozens of mayors (such as Sorin Oprescu), five MPs, two ex-ministers and a former prime minister in 2014 alone. Hundreds of former judges and prosecutors have also been brought to justice, with a conviction rate above 20%. In 2015, 12 members of parliament were investigated, including ministers: "we have investigated two sitting ministers, one of whom went from his ministerial chair directly to pre-trial detention", Kövesi said.

Victor Ponta, former prime minister of Romania and the highest-ranking government official currently under DNA investigation and prosecution, accused Kövesi of being "a totally unprofessional prosecutor trying to make a name by inventing and imagining facts and untrue situations from 10 years ago". These comments were posted on his Facebook page, following his indictment on charges of forgery, money laundering, and tax evasion, brought against him by the DNA.

Controversies

Investigations and prosecutions under Kövesi have surged leading the DNA's focus and the methods used to obtain convictions under Kövesi's leadership to come under scrutiny. Conviction rates have risen to 92%, with a number of former supporters, including Traian Băsescu, Romania's president from 2004 to 2014 accusing the agency of acting unconstitutionally and abusing human rights to obtain convictions.

It has been alleged that evidence has been leaked to the media to discredit defendants and that the agency is overly reliant on telephone intercepts, via the Romanian Intelligence Service, the SRI, to initiate investigations. In 2015 24 investigations were opened following direct referrals from the SRI.

Several judges who have refused to rule in favour of the DNA have subsequently been investigated. The head of the agency responsible for countering organised crime (DIICOT), Alina Bica (ro), was also jailed for eight months after refusing to make arrests proposed by the DNA, citing lack of evidence.

The DNA's lack of accountability under Kövesi has led to it being labelled Securitate version 2.0 by critics. The relationship with the SRI, 180-day ‘preventative detention’, excessive pre-trial publicity including public denunciation, procedural violations such as the offer of immunity for the provision of witness statements and "the way the agency routinely breaches Chinese walls between the executive, judiciary and law enforcement" have led to the DNA being accused of human rights violations and being "an active participant in its partisan struggles."

Kövesi's personal independence was questioned after she was accused by Sebastian Ghiță (ro), a leading businessman and PSD politician, himself accused of corruption, of benefiting from a government cover-up to protect Kövesi from accusations that she plagiarized her doctoral thesis. It was claimed that a report exonerating her of wrong-doing was written by a government official rather than an independent committee.

Ghiță later went on to claim that former Prime Minister Victor Ponta was blackmailed to appoint Kövesi to the leadership of the DNA.

Kövesi received criticism from the National Union of Judges in 2016 for personally lobbying against the narrowing of the definition of corruption proposed by the Constitutional Court. The Union complained that she was exerting "a form of pressure on the Constitutional Court, which is not in accordance to the magistrate's statute and to the principle of separation of powers".