Page 5 - bne_newspaper_June_22_2018

Top Stories
June 22, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 5
order to save PSD," Ponta, Dragnea's former colleague turned bitter foe, wrote on Facebook, reminding his followers that exactly one year ago, PSD members "were traumatised and humiliated by Liviu Dragnea" to give a no-confidence vote to the then government led by Grindeanu.
Embattled DNA strikes a blow
The verdict is some rare positive news for Romania's embattled DNA, which has been under attack from the ruling coalition that has been striving to change criminal legislation since it returned to power.
Some of the changes, many of them already adopted, have been criticised by magistrates, the president and even Romania’s international partners. Several seemed tailored for Dragnea, like the emergency ordinance adopted last year by the government partly decriminalising abuse of office. This led to mass protests in Romania, the biggest ones since the fall of communism, with around half a million people rallying in the country’s main cities in February 2017.
However, PSD went on with its plans to amend criminal legislation. Earlier this week, the Chamber of Deputies gave its final vote on some amendments to the criminal codes. One of the adopted changes was seen as helping Dragnea, who could see his earlier trial in which he re- ceived a suspended sentence for voter manipula- tion, reopened. According to the amendment, the trial could be reopened if the sentence motivation was not signed off by the judge who participated in the decision making process.
The European Commission expressed on June 21 its concern over the changes to the Romanian criminal legislation which it said it is following closely.
From the justice system perspective, the ruling can also improve the image of the Romanian anticorruption prosecutors, who have been lately the target of numerous attacks from the ruling coalition which accused them of abuse. It also indicates that judges do not give in to pressure when ruling in corruption cases involving high officials.
Recently, the head of Romania’s High Court of Cassation and Justice, Cristina Tarcea, said there is and has been pressure on the high court judges, and expressed her confidence the situation would not influence their rulings. The statement was made after Dragnea made some statements during a TV interview regarding prosecutors which could have been easily been interpreted as a threatening.
The endorsement of its efforts was much needed by the DNA’s anticorruption prosecutors after some high officials — including Dragnea’s pre- decessor as head of the PSD, Ponta — have been recently acquitted in corruption cases. The rul- ing coalition has asked for the DNA’s head Laura Codruta Kovesi, under whose leadership numer- ous high-level probes have been launched, to be removed from her post, but so far President Klaus Iohannis has not responded to a Constitutional Court ruling that he must sack her.