The Minister of Justice, Olesea Stamate, argues that appointing people of integrity in key positions will ensure a mechanism for the internal cleansing of justice structures. For example, a head and his deputies from the Prosecutor's Office will not allow corrupt or unprofessional people to work within the institution. The statement was made at "Punctul pe azi" show on TVR Moldova, IPN reports.
The justice reform project, which was recently proposed by the new government, refers to reducing the number of judges of the Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ) from 33 to 17. Olesea Stamate says that the 17 judge formula resulted from the desire to change the competences of this Court, by reducing it to a Court of Cassation. “The CSJ’s main role resides in the unification of the judicial practice. Yes, it will judge recourses on certain very clear grounds. It shall not be able to rule on recourses at any time and it must not enter into the substance of the matter. Reducing the competences of the CSJ also means reducing the load of cases”, said the minister.
Olesea Stamate says that judges will be elected according to several criteria, and the first one will be integrity, which will be an exclusion criterion. "Integrity will be evaluated based on the statement of assets and interests, only much thoroughly than what is currently done by the National Integrity Authority (ANI): goods declared at ridiculous prices or gifts made at weddings or christening parties in the amount of 30-50 thousand euros will not be accepted.”, said the head of the Ministry of Justice. Judges who do not pass the integrity filter, will no longer be evaluated in terms of professional and personal abilities.
Also, the justice reform provides that judges will pass the evaluation and testing of an independent commission. The report of this commission will serve as notification basis for ANI and the Judicial Inspection and these two institutions will take actions regarding the judge.
At the same time, the Minister of Justice says that at the beginning of November the Republic of Moldova could have a new Prosecutor General. "If the law is passed quickly, I think at the beginning of November we could have a general prosecutor," said Olesea Stamate.
