The disputes between the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office (APO) and the National Anticorruption Center (NAC) do not do good to justice and to the image of the Republic of Moldova in the context of the European integration objective, said Deputy Parliament Speaker Mihai Popșoi, who considers that the disclosure of the recording of Veronica Dragalin’s meeting with anticorruption prosecutors is a big illegality, IPN reports.
In an audio recording made public on Wednesday, APO chief Veronica Dragalin tells the prosecutors that she is impatient to personally enter their homes with persons in balaclavas, at 6am, to arrest them in the presence of their children and spouses. Watchdog expert Valeriu Pașa said the persons who claimed that they were intimidated by the APO head served the regime of Plahotniuc.
“It is indeed hard not to go mad in such situations when you realize that the people who must fight corruption, crime are themselves accomplices if not managers of such schemes. From my viewpoint, it is a desperate fight by elements of the captured state against any legality, any efficiency. It is not a fight between the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office and the NAC. It is a war for the right to impunity. The basic rights of everyone, even of those who are corrupt, should be respected. But we have a specific situation when NAC officers, who destroyed hundreds of lives, of innocent businesspeople, political and activists, by fabricating cases, who all together acted as political police in the interests of Plahotniuc, come and say that they were psychologically intimidated. Poor souls. I’m for the observance of human rights, but I’m against hypocrisy,” Valeriu Pașa stated in the program “Secrets of the Power” on JurnalTV.
Deputy Speaker Mihai Popșoi said the dissentions between the APO and the NAC have an impact on the justice sector reform and such destructive practices should stop.
“These disputes do harm to the image of the Republic of Moldova in the context of the European integration process and we, by respecting the independence of the given institutions, clearly show that such an approach in the public sphere and in interinstitutional communication is unacceptable. The recording that was made public is a big illegality. Those who took part in the meeting are anticorruption prosecutors and some of them claimed that they felt intimidated by the head of the given institution. This thing leaves a bitter feeling as a large part of those prosecutors made that shameful gesture by signing in support of Plahotniuc’s Government. Being under the pressure of an oligarchic, illegitimate, anti-popular regime, they had to support Plahotniuc and didn’t feel intimidated then. Now that the chief of the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office demands that they should obey the law, they feel intimidated,” stated Mihai Popșoi.
Veronica Dragalin confirmed the authenticity of the audio recording, saying that it happened in the June 7 meeting with the whole staff of the APO in the NAC building and this didn’t involve persons from outside the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office.
