The prosecution service is daily brought into the focus by imbalanced critical statements by politicians that go beyond the legitimate criticism. These are aimed at attacking, intimidating and pressing prosecutors to take particular decisions or at showing disrespect for these, using inappropriate arguments, degrading the prosecution service or discrediting individual prosecutors, says a principled appeal in connection with the political sphere attacks on the independence of the prosecution service that was presented by Prosecutor General Alexandr Stoianoglo on January 5, IPN reports.
“We draw attention to the more insistent and brutal attempts by some of the political players aimed at undermining the institutional and individual independence of prosecutors, the public confidence in the judicial power. We are witnessing the biggest front erected against the prosecution service by politicians and their supporters, who assume the role of judges of the work of prosecutors and who daily throw mud at the prosecution service, presenting all kinds of situations that they depict as being mistakenly solved from judicial viewpoint,” said Alexandru Stoianoglo, reading the appeal.
He told a news conference that even if the Constitution specifies the principle of separation of powers in the state, which is accepted and recognized by the representatives of the legislative, executive and judicial powers, a series of worrisome conflicts and tensions related to the application of this principle appeared recently.
According to the Prosecutor General, all these attacks intensified, going beyond any admissible limit, especially now that the PGO made significant progress in investigations, including into the bank fraud case.
“The reason for such attacks against the prosecution service is clear to all those who have the courage to see and tell the truth. The politicians are bothered and cannot accept the idea of not having instruments for influencing our internal institutional processes and the solutions we adopt. They want an independent prosecution service that is dependent only on them,” stated Alexandru Stoianoglo. He added the current PGO will not abide by political preferences and sympathies so as to be in someone’s good graces, while the members of the executive, the legislature or the presidential administration do not have the right to dictate or decide who should stay in jail.
“We call on the Venice Commission, the International Association of Prosecutors, the Consultative Council of European Prosecutors of the Council of Europe, the Network of Prosecutors General and Equivalent Institutions in Supreme Courts of the European Union, the European Parliament and the whole diplomatic corps working in the Republic of Moldova to disclose the political pressure and intimidations coming from the political sphere by which they attempt to undermine the independence of prosecutors in favor of the political factor,” reads the appeal presented by Stoianoglo.
The appeal was signed by the Prosecutor General’s Office, the Superior Council of Prosecutors, the Association of Prosecutors and the Association of Prosecutions Service Veterans.
