Officials assure that the Law on the Prosecution Service will ensure the independence of prosecutors, while jurists consider that the dependence of the prosecutor general will yet increase. Contradictory opinions on the issue were expressed in the talk show “Reply” on Prime TV channel, IPN reports.

Ion Dron, who heads the Center of Initiatives and Public Authorities Monitoring, considers the new Law on the Prosecution Service will intensify dependence on the superior prosecutor. “The prosecutor general will not be a simple manager, as some say. This became a process player. Article 6 of the Law provides that the prosecutor is superior to all the prosecutors. Other legal provisions allow the superior prosecutor to intervene or to withdraw any case. A dangerous precedent was set. For the first time Parliament passed consciously a law that runs counter to the Constitution’s provisions about the appointment of the prosecutor general. In a state with the rule of law, such things should not be allowed,” said the jurist.

Former Constitutional Court judge Nicolae Osmochescu also believes that the new Law on the Prosecution Service will diminish the independence of prosecutors. “I think this law will concentrate the power in the hands of the prosecutor general even more,” he stated.

Minister of Justice Vladimir Cebotari denied these assertions. “The decisional independence of prosecutors was extended. Even if there are some instructions on the part of the superior prosecutor, the prosecutors will decide by themselves whether to accept or reject them. If these instructions come in written form, the prosecutors will have the right to challenge them. Meanwhile, changes will also be made to other laws, such as the Penal Procedure Code, so as to adjust them to the new Law on the Prosecution Service. I think the effects of this law will be felt in half a year of its coming into force on August 1, 2016,” he stated.