Eduard Harunjen today submitted a preliminary application to the President of the Republic of Moldova by which he asked to annul the effects of the decree issued by ex-President Igor Dodon on July 11, 2019, by which he was sacked from the post of prosecutor general. He asked President Maia Sandu to annul this decree because it was vitiated by a number of circumstances of fact and law, as he considers.
In a news conference hosted by IPN, the former prosecutor general said the Administrative Code stipulates two stages in such situations. The first stage is the submission of a preliminary application to the public authority that issued the challenged document, while the second stage is the filing of a lawsuit if the public authority refuses to annul the challenged document. “I requested to suspend the effects of that decree until the case is definitively settled,” stated Eduard Harunjen.
According to him, the decree of July 11, 2019 was vitiated as the then parliamentary majority, on June 9, 2019, at the proposal of ex-MP and current minister of justice, adopted a decision by which circumstances that questioned the legality of his appointment as prosecutor general were ascertained. “At the same time, the MPs suggested that President Igor Dodon should issue a decree to put that decision into practice and to dismiss me from the post for the reason that in 2016 I didn’t meet the legal conditions for being designated prosecutor general,” stated Eduard Harunjen.
He noted that after that Parliament decision was adopted, he was urged by politicians to tender his resignation. Otherwise, the President would sign the decree. “Those insistent calls on the part of politicians were made in the period during which I was in the hospital as my state of health worsened following difficult neurosurgery I underwent not long before. I every time explained to the politicians that they adopted an illegal decision and its effects would be catastrophic for the institution and the state, but I was every time told: “we realize that it is illegal, but you must leave”,” said Eduard Harunjen.
The ex-prosecutor genera general noted that two important national courts of law pronounced on the legality of his appointment in 2016 – the Supreme Court of Justice and the Constitutional Court. “What did the 56 members of the parliamentary majority do? They assumed responsibility for inversing the legal effects of two important decisions taken by two important courts of the Republic of Moldova. In any democratic state based on the rule of law, this is not only unacceptable, but also unimaginable,” said Eduard Harunjen.
Asked why he hadn’t made public statements during three years, the ex-prosecutor general said the situation in the prosecution service is inappropriate and all the executive posts in the service are held on an interim basis, with stability and continuity of activity not being ensured.
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