Prosecutor General Alexandr Stoianoglo said that he became “the first and main target” in the war against corruption announced by the PAS government. According to the prosecutor, in a record period of time and with the flagrant violation of procedures and rules, a law that stipulates all the instruments for suspending and dismissing the prosecutor general was designed and adopted. These are mechanisms that were initiated and are controlled politically. There is also a discrediting campaign that was planned with the direct involvement of criminal groups and politicians, through the agency of a network of NGOs and so-called independent experts, IPN reports.
“In their TV debates or online posts, they daily disseminated dirt, manipulated heavily, intentionally spread half-truths and modeled the reality as the command center demanded. The prosecutor general was accused of ties with the criminal underworld, obscure interests and incompetence. Any decision or action of the prosecutor general was criticized,” Alexandr Stoianoglo stated in a press briefing.
He noted that several lawsuits to challenge his appointment were filed. “It is known that to annul the results of the contest to choose the prosecutor general, exorbitant sums of money were employed and not only I know this. The trials in this case ended only recently. Moreover, some of the politicians, ex-prosecutors, lawyers during the past three months for five times made unfounded requests to the Superior Council of Prosecutors to take legal action against me. In September this year, society was presented studies centering on the work of the Prosecutor General’s Office and its head. All the conclusions of the authors criticize the work of the Prosecutor General’s Office and its activity even if none of them asked for official information for substantiating the findings.
“Investigating the case against the main mobster in the history of the prosecution service of the Republic of Moldova – the former head of the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office – we managed in legal conditions and with the support of EUROPOL experts to interpret and decipher the correspondence from one of the telephones used by Viorel Morari. The data we managed to analyze show how and with whose assistance the former head of the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office manipulated public opinion and continues to do it to discredit the PGO and the prosecutor general,” stated Alexandr Stoianoglo.
According to him, in September 2019, being illegally reinstated as anticorruption prosecutor, Viorel Morari had close cooperation relations with representatives of the then power, counseling them and offering them his services, which is incompatible with the status of prosecutor. Stoianoglo read alleged conversations of Viorel Morari with representatives of civil society and with the former ambassador of the European Union in Chisinau.
“The telephone discussions of Viorel Morari with representatives of the power, NGOs and the diplomatic corps that I presented took place during November-December 2019, when the contest to choose candidates for Prosecutor General was in full swing, and in the first half of January 2020, when the inspections at the specialized Prosecutor’s Offices were underway. I assure you that the scheme by which this network fulfills its mission continues to work. Only the intensity of these attacks and the unjust method changed as media outlets are involved and we cannot always respond to them,” said Stoianoglo.
Viorel Morari hasn’t yet commented on the prosecutor general’s statements.
