You're reading: Bloomberg: Romania’s top anti-corruption prosecutor is headed for a showdown

Bloomberg: Romania’s top anti-corruption prosecutor is headed for a showdown

Published May 7, 2018 at 5:33 pm

A protester wearing Romanian flag holds a wooden cross reading "PSD (the rulling party) Mafia" during a protest against the Justice minister and the corruption in front of the Romanian Government in Bucharest on February 25, 2018. Romania's justice minister Tudorel Toader launched in February a procedure to sack the popular and internationally respected head of the anti-corruption investigation body. Toader, from the left-wing Social Democratic Party (PSD) said that the head prosecutor of DNA (National Anticorruption Department), Laura Codruta Kovesi had "damaged the image" of Romania abroad and accused her of being "authoritarian". Kovesi has helped bring a raft of corrupt officials to justice in recent years in one of the EU's most graft-ridden countries.

Photo by AFP

She’s rarely alone, but she cuts a lonely figure in the most corrupt part of Europe.

Romania’s chief anti-corruption prosecutor, Laura Codruta Kovesi, has investigated 60 top-ranking officials, including a prime minister, and more than 40 lawmakers and other wealthy Romanians over the past four years. Now her biggest moment is coming: a showdown with the man in charge.