2 fearless women lead Romania anti-corruption crusade

Two Romanian women are spearheading an unprecedented anti-corruption drive that has made politicians tremble and even challenged the prime minister.

Laura Kosevi heads the anti-corruption directorate (DNA), while Livia Stanciu is the president of the Supreme Court.

Thanks to them, dozens of corrupt former ministers, MPs, senators and judges have been prosecuted and convicted.

In early June, news broke that the DNA had launched proceedings against Prime Minister Victor Ponta, accusing him of forgery, complicity in tax evasion and money laundering while he was a lawyer.

Ponta is also suspected of alleged conflict of interest during his term as prime minister, plunging Romania into a major political crisis.

Denying any wrongdoing, the leader has ruled out resigning.

- 'A mission to accomplish' -

Kovesi, 42, is a former basketball player, and her smile, big brown eyes and soft voice do little to conceal her determination to clean up Romania's corridors of power.

"The prosecutors will stop at nothing: if they have to arrest 1,000 people who break the law, then they will arrest 1,000 people," she told a local newspaper.

In 2014, the US State Department granted Kovesi its International Women of Courage Award for her "crucial role" in reforming Romania's judiciary.

Several corruption scandals in recent years prompted the US embassy in Bucharest and other Western missions to watch out for judicial independence in one of the EU's poorest states.

"I have a mission to accomplish, and for me that is the most important thing," Kovesi said.

In 2014, the DNA sent more that 1,100 people to court over graft allegations and had some 10,200 cases under investigation.

Kovesi described 2014 as a "record year," with the highest number of new cases for the DNA since it was set up in 2002, as well as the highest number of people sent to court, the most convictions in DNA-probed cases, and the highest number of top officials under examination.

The agency had already made great strides under Kovesi's predecessor Daniel Morar and was praised by the European Union. It has gathered even more speed since she took over in 2013, becoming one of Romania's most trusted institutions.

But politicians do not share the people's enthusiasm. In recent weeks, calls for Kovesi and Stanciu to resign have multiplied.

Senate chief Calin Popescu-Tariceanu called on the conservative Romanian President Klaus Iohannis to "use all the constitutional and legal means at his disposal" to have the two women sacked, branding them "unworthy" for their roles.

To back up his call, Popescu-Tariceanu invoked a regrettable though isolated incident: the six-month detention of a woman accused by Stanciu of blackmail, who was then acquitted.

"There is no reason why I should resign," Supreme Court chief Stanciu replied.

- Turning point -

Straight-talking Stanciu, 58, is one of Romania's most respected judges.

A former prosecutor in the eastern city of Galati, she says she is "proud" of having reached the top of a justice system whose inner workings she has come to know well.

Since 2010, when she was chosen to head the Supreme Court, the number of high-profile convictions over corruption has shot up, including in cases that had been open for years.

She became the nemesis of Ponta's Social Democratic Party in 2012 after she sentenced ex-prime minister Adrian Nastase to two years in jail. He had seen himself as untouchable, and the verdict marked a turning point in Romania's post-communist era.

Like Kovesi, Stanciu describes herself as "tireless" in her struggle.

"Everything I do, I do it with devotion and passion," Stanciu told AFP in an interview last October, adding that she always worked in "good faith."

Before President Iohannis won the election in November on an anti-corruption pledge, Stanciu warned that promises would have to be followed by concrete action.

Advances in the justice system could be "reversed in two days" and more progress was needed, she said at the time.

Several bids in recent months by the left-wing parliamentary majority to limit the DNA's reach, and to offer politicians greater immunity, suggest the people in power may not make that easy.