The actions taken by the Prosecutor General’s Office (PGO) in some of the high-profile cases were either modest or against the law, the Institute for European Policies and Reforms (IPRE) says in an opinion note on the PGO’s handling of resonant cases in 2020 and 2021, IPN reports.

The IPRE experts ascertained the violation of provisions of the law on the prosecution service, as regards the offering of allowances to retired prosecutors, and of the Penal Procedure Code, in particular of Article 274, including the way in which the PGO pronounced on the denouncements filed against Igor Dodon.

Also, no action was taken in high-profile cases featuring public figures, including controversial persons, such as Veaceslav Platon. Even if the conditions for taking preventive measures against this were met, no action was taken and Platon left the Republic of Moldova.

The progress made in elucidating the episodes related to the bank fraud is modest. Even if objectively there are limitations concerning the tracing of goods that are outside the country and that necessitate additional effort, including the negotiation of international agreements, creation of joint investigation teams, formulation of letters rogatory, repatriation of ill-gotten gains, as part of the criminal investigation measurers during over a year and a half, the extradition of Vladimir Plahotniuc and Ilan Șor could not be obtained.

The IPRE experts consider the way in which the law on the prosecution service and the prosecutor general was applied should represent the object of the analysis of their activity during the last year and a half. In particular, it goes to the way in which the resonant cases with a profound impact on society, which involved such controversial persons as Veaceslav Platon, Ilan Șor, Vladimir Plahotniuc, Igor Dodon, were managed. There will be analyzed the legality of the actions taken by the prosecutor general, in particular how the honorable resignation of the ex-chief of the Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime and Special Cases was accepted.

In the cases in which the prosecution bodies issued the indictment and sent these to court, rapid examination is needed with the involvement of the administration of the Chisinau City Court and the Chisinau City Appeals Court as this would ensure an end result, including by ordering the confiscation of sequestrated goods.

IPRE recommends continuing the efforts to negotiate and implement bilateral agreements on data exchange, to constitute joint investigation teams, to repatriate assets and to extradite persons who avoid legal responsibility and for the PGO, the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office, the Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime and Special Cases, the National Anticorruption Center and the Criminal Assets Recovery Agency to gain skills to swiftly formulate requests of international judicial cooperation in criminal matters.

The opinion was produced in the framework of the IPRE project “Strengthening the Resilience against Systemic Kleptocracy in the Republic of Moldova” that is financially supported by Soros Foundation Moldova.