The Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office turned its attention to the annulment by the Superior Council of Prosecutors of the competition for the selection of the prosecutor general. The institution’s chief Veronica Dragalin said she assumed the decision to initiate criminal proceedings, IPN reports.
“This is not a criminal case, but is an initial phase of investigation, before starting a criminal case. At this phase of the criminal process, the law allows us to use particular tools. For example, we can pick up the relevant documents, can interview witnesses in the criminal procedure so as to reach a solution,” the head of the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office said in a livestream.
According to her, two solutions are possible. One solution is to drop the prosecution if there is no evidence to prove the crime. The second solution is to order to institute criminal proceedings within which the law allows using other tools to determine whether there is evidence for a case to be sent to court or not.
Veronica Dragalin said that the members of the Superior Council of Prosecutors and the candidates who took part in the competition could be questioned.
After the interview stage of the competition to fill the position of prosecutor general, the SCP awarded anticorruption prosecutor Octavian Yakimovski 8.53 points. Prosecutor Igor Demchuchin scored 8.19, interim prosecutor general Ion Munteanu – 8.16, jurist Andrei Coca – 4.72 points. The Superior Council of Prosecutors was supposed to approve the results of the competition on Wednesday, but after examining several requests from the candidates and after long deliberations, it decided to stop the contest. The SCP revoked its own February 22 decision on the results of the interview stage “in connection with the facts that emerged subsequently and in order not to jeopardize the public interest”.
Alexandru Stoianoglo was suspended from the office of prosecutor general at the beginning of October 2021 and was then dismissed, at the end of September 2023. The President’s dismissal decree was based on the SCP’s decision according to which the prosecutor genera’s performance was assessed as unsatisfactorily. The post was held on an interim basis by Dumitru Robu and then by Ion Munteanu.
