Democratic MP Vladimir Cebotari said that the amendments to the Law on the Prosecutor's Office have been hastily implemented. According to him, the project was not consulted by people with expertise. In addition, the amendments will lead to institutional blockade. The statement was made during the TVR Moldova program "Punctul pe azi".
"It is argued that the Superior Council of Prosecutors (CSP) does not want change. Well, let the Council make this change. The Council began the selection process for the general prosecutor position and the result of this process has to be evaluated, then concluded if the Council had good intentions and if it passed this examination. It was unsuccessful. Why? Because having an independent Council is not desired”, said the MP.
In his opinion, the implemented amendments contain a lot of mistakes and will lead to institutional blockade because they do not foresee the situation in which the CSP will reject all the proposed candidacies made by the Ministry of Justice for the position of general prosecutor. "Then we will unexpectedly find ourselves in either an eternal or indefinite situation without a general prosecutor. In addition, the proposed amendments are contrary to all international standards", said the Democrat.
The advisor to the speaker of Parliament, Fadei Nagacevschi, hopes that the new procedure of general prosecutor selection will elect a person with integrity as head of the General Prosecutor's Office. According to him, this procedure was put forward by the Ministry of Justice. In the counselor's opinion, whether or not this instrument of appointment of the general prosecutor is good depends very much on political will and on the willingness to reform of those within the justice system.
Fadei Nagacevschi said that it is difficult to accuse the general prosecutor selection process of being politically partisan, because the commission that will select the future candidates will be made up of technocrats, while the "CSP is another filter. The CSP can return this list of candidates”, said the counselor.
Yesterday, at 22:00, the Parliament voted to amend the Law on the Prosecutor's Office, based on the initiative put forward by the Ministry of Justice and based on the amendments submitted by the MPs. The law was approved in the second reading. Thus, the candidate for the position of Attorney General will be selected by the CSP based on a list put forward by the Ministry of Justice.
Last week, the CSP announced that 7 candidates put forward their candidacy for the contest for the position of general prosecutor, that was previously initiated.
