Contrary to the statements and instructions of the prospector general concerning the stopping of arrests involving persons in balaclavas and centering on the fight against grand corruption, the operations against functionaries investigated for petty offenses and corruption go on, said the suspended chief of the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office Viorel Morari. According to him, the resonant cases are abandoned or put aside, without publishing information, including statistics about the done work, IPN reports.
In an open letter addressed to Prosecutor General Alexandr Stoianoglo, Viorel Morari says that on February 17 he filed an application by which he asked for an audience with the prosecutor general so as to furnish him with information about the abuses committed by inferior prosecutors and to prevent these from misleading. But he received no response to his request and thus decided to address a letter to him. Another reason for this decision is the PGO’s reaction to his public appearances as a result of which he was labeled as offender who is expected to provide evidence in court and to prosecutors.
“I do not want to be awaited there in vain as you are not an independent and impartial prosecutor general. I regret to ascertain that your main efforts as the prosecutor general are aimed at improving your own image by populist public speeches inspired by specially contracted communicators, but without improving the work of the prosecutor general on the whole,” said Viorel Morari.
According to him, a new approach was made in the case called generically “billion theft” as regards the arrest of Vlad Plahotniuc, but no measures were taken to clarify things for Interpol concerning his search. It was yet enough to supplement the counts for which Vlad Plahotniuc was put on the wanted list as the new arrest warrant does envision that he will stay under arrest for 60 days if he is identified.
The letter notes that only one person was brought to justice in the case of expulsion of Turkish teachers from Moldova, with the real organizers and instigators in this case not being identified. No measures were taken to compensate for the damage caused to the families of teachers and to the country’s image.
Viorel Morari said the published footage is irrelevant for prosecutors in the “financing of the PSRM” case and denouncements are needed to resume the investigation. But in other cases, anonymous letters were enough to take legal action.
He also said that the actions taken against prosecutors to blame for alleged violations are not made public. “That’s why I come with several rhetoric questions: what steps will be taken in relation to ex-prosecutor Vitalie Sibov, who reopened the case of David Davitean, or in relation to prosecutor Mircea Ciobanu, who managed the case of Olga Punga?”.
According to Viorel Morari, problems were identified during inspections at the specialized prosecutor’s offices, but these are mainly formal and irrelevant. No detailed reports on the inspections carried out at the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office and the Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime and Special Cases have been published.
As regards the criminal cases started against him, he said he does not challenge the investigations as these were needed to determine all the circumstances and facts described in those anonymous letters. But the investigations should be in strict compliance with the law and should obey the principle of the presumption of innocence. The ignoring of these two conditions means undertaking of abusive tactics and absence of substantial differences in approaches.
