The Action and Solidarity Party (PAS) will not take the blame for the failed process of selecting the future Prosecutor General because this is the exclusive responsibility of the Superior Council of Prosecutors (CSP), said PAS lawmaker Vasile Grădinaru.
Speaking on a public affairs show on RliveTV, Grădinaru stressed that Olesea Vîrlan, the CSP jury member that caused the contest to be cancelled, had been appointed by the community of prosecutors.
“The selection of the Prosecutor General is handled by the Superior Council of Prosecutors, not PAS, not Maia Sandu. PAS’s job is only to build institutions that raise no questions as to their integrity and competence. And this is what we have done. We have established independent institutions, which must act independently. And this was exactly such a case when the institution was supposed to act independently, without us interfering. Mind you, this CSP member was delegated by the prosecutors’ community, not by us. Prosecutors trusted this person, they delegated her, and look what she did. But unlike other CSP members from previous generations, she at least had the decency to resign. Our job was to make sure we have a selection process with fair rules, the rest of the process is for the CSP to administer”, said the PAS lawmaker.
He added that the appointment of a new Prosecutor General is a recommendation of the European Union, and this was expected to be achieved by the end of March.
“It’s a bad thing that we don’t yet have a Prosecutor General in place for at least two reasons. First, completing the process would have given stability to the system. Second, this was a condition that was supposed to be met by the end of March. We don’t like the situation either. We should have already reported by the end of March the fulfillment of the nine recommendations, with the election of the future Prosecutor General being one of them”, said Vasile Grădinaru.
On February 28, the Superior Council of Prosecutors decided to terminate the competition for selecting the future Prosecutor General and start anew. This was decided after CSP member Olesea Vârlan appeared to have “mistakenly” underrated a finalist.
