The contest to fill the post of chief of the Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime and Special Cases (PCCOCS) should be annulled and should be held when the Superior Council of Prosecutors (SCP) is chosen following pre-vetting, said Minister of Justce Sergiu Litvinenco, commenting on the scandal around the contest. He noted the annulment of this contest cannot lead to the annulment of the contest won by Veronica Dragalin as the situations are different, IPN reports.

The scandal arose after Iulian Groza, a member of the special commission for the pre-selection of candidates, reported pressure being exerted on him, describing the exercise is vitiated. The minister of justice said that to overcome this situation, the contest should be annulled and should be resumed when the new composition of the SCP is elected.

“I regret the developments. The situation around this contest damages the image of institutions. As long as there is no confidence among the citizens, the process cannot be continued. I consider the contest should be annulled and should be held again when we have a SCP elected following pre-vetting. This can be chosen at the end of April or the start of May. The mutual criticism compromised the contest,” Sergiu Litvinenco stated in the program “In Depth” on ProTV Chișinău channel.

Even if Veronica Dragalin was earlier chosen as head of the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office based on the same procedure, the minister said the situations are different and the annulment of the contest to fill the post of chief of PCCOCS does not annul the contest for the post of head of the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office.

“The situation is now different. The contest at the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office was initiated and completed. Here, the contest only started. No progress has been made. The contest was initiated by the SCP based on the created situation. As the contest wasn’t completed, the initiator of the contest can abandon it,” said Sergiu Litvinenco.

The annulment of the contest to fill the post of chief of the Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime and Special Cases is on the agenda of Tuesday’s meeting of the SCP. The contest involves three candidates, namely former prosecutor Andrei Matsko, currently lawyer, and prosecutors Eugen Rurac and Sergiu Russu, with the latter holding the post of PCCOCS chief on an interim basis.