Romanian president challenges government decree in court

BUCHAREST (Reuters) - Romanian President Klaus Iohannis said on Thursday he had filed a challenge with the Constitutional Court to a government decree decriminalising some graft offenses and which has brought hundreds of thousands of Romanians out in protest. "It is obviously a legal constitutional conflict between the government and the judicial system and parliament," Iohannis said in a televised news conference. He called on the Social Democrat-led government to repeal the decree, adopted late on Tuesday and which will enter into force in a little over one week unless the Constitutional Court rules against it. Romania's top judicial watchdog has also filed a court challenge to the decree. (Reporting by Luiza Ilie; Editing by Matt Robinson)