The prosecution service reform didn’t free the institution from political influence and didn’t ensure the independence of prosecutors, said ex-prosecutors invited to the program “Politics” on TV7 channel, IPN reports. On the other hand, representatives of the government coalition consider the reform was just launched and its implementation will yet produce results.
Ex-prosecutor Vladimir Turcan, currently MP of the Party of Socialists, said the prosecution service continues to be influenced by the political class, the reform being simulated. “We must be realistic. This is a reform that Chisinau had to report to the foreign partners that allocated millions of euros for reforming the justice sector. I know that there are honest prosecutors, but they are limited in their acts. The prosecution service continues to be an instrument in the hands of the ruling politicians who use it against inconvenient opponents,” he stated.
Ex-prosecutor of Chisinau municipality Ion Diacov said the new law on the prosecution service that took effect last August contains judicial mistakes. “They created two specialized prosecutor’s offices, one of which is called the Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Criminality. We do not have such a legal term in our legislation. I want to be optimistic that we will have a professional and independent prosecutor’s office in the future, but I don’t think this will happen soon with such a composition,” he noted.
Nicolae Ursu, chairman of the Association of Prosecution Service Veterans, said the prosecution service, as the courts of law, works selectively. “We will see in time how the reform is implemented. The prosecutor must be upright and assert his authority from the very beginning. If he allows to be politically influenced, everything will fail. The political orders should be abandoned and the principle that all are equal before the law must be respected,” stated Ursu.
MP of the governing coalition Anatolie Zagorodnyi said the problems in the prosecution service started in 2009, when the ruling alliance distributed the state institutions according to political criteria, while civil society and the mass media kept silent. However, he is optimistic that the prosecution service reform will free the institution from political influence and things will go smoothly.
