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BUCHAREST, Romania — Romania’s president has offered his support to the besieged chief anti-corruption prosecutor, suggesting politicians indicted for corruption are trying to undermine the anti-graft fight.

President Klaus Iohannis on Thursday hit out at “offenders who are making a desperate attempt” to try to discredit the anti-corruption prosecutors’ agency, efforts he called “deplorable and unconvincing.”

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Former lawmaker Vlad Cosma this week claimed that four prosecutors wanted him to provide fake evidence and had planted unspecified false evidence on him.

Chief anti-corruption prosecutor Laura Codruta Kovesi rejected the allegations and claimed Cosma, who is on trial for influence-peddling, had “tried to intimidate prosecutors” by threatening to broadcast doctored recordings.

Justice Minister Tudorel Toader, who returned to Bucharest from Japan to deal with the crisis, will present a report about the situation to Parliament next week.