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European chief prosecutor Kovesi on ECHR ruling: It's a victory of those who supported justice in recent years
European prosecutor-in-chief Laura Codruta Kovesi has stated on Tuesday that the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruling regarding her removal from the office of prosecutor-in-chief of the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) "represents a victory of all those who have supported justice in recent years years."
"I am content for starting this demarche in which I believed very much, a demarche which focused more on a matter of principle related to the independence of the judiciary, the independence of prosecutors and judges, and I feel that it is a victory, not just a personal victory, it is a victory of the justice system and it is a victory of all those who have supported justice in recent years," Kovesi told Europa FM radio station.
În her opinion, the ECHR ruling regarding her removal from the office of DNA should not remain without effect, adding that the Constitutional Court of Romania (CCR) should rule "on principles" and not regarding a person. "This decision cannot remain without effect, something must happen, the Romanian state must take some measures so that such situations do not happen again. First of all, the Constitutional Court should never again rule on a person, as it did in my case, even twice, the Constitutional Court should rule on principles and other matters. And secondly, a prosecutor in office who is removed from office, a judge or any other person, a civil servant, as the European Court uses in its reasoning, should have the possibility to appear before a panel of judges. This is what the ECHR is actually reproaching, including to the Constitutional Court, for depriving me of the opportunity to appear before a panel of judges, before a panel of independent judges to decide whether this revocation is legal or not, whether it is appropriate or not, whether the legal requirements are met or not," Kovesi told Europa FM radio station.