Vladislav Gribincea, chair of the Center for Legal Resources (CRJM), believes that prosecutors understand the need for change, but the price for change at the expense of their own convenience and personal guarantees has proven to be hard to pay. “Prosecutors and judges have tried to act as a caste rather than as a service in the interests of citizens. And this was obvious," said the CRJM chairman in an interview for Radio Free Europe, quoted by IPN.
In his opinion, the Prosecutor General must be a technocrat, a very good manager, a person who can unite the best prosecutors around him and guide them towards a harmonious development of the Prosecutor's Office in a European style. "Not a very powerful individual who keeps everything under control and does not tolerate any alternative opinions, as we had during the last general prosecutor’s tenure."
"When the Prosecutor's Office Law was drafted, my position was that we must have a general prosecutor who should be a system manager, and not someone who could make decisions on legal cases in an arbitrary manner. Then I arrived at the idea that that the Prosecutor General must be a procedural figure. And what we have seen in the meantime is that, yes, this person is someone from the system, but who intervenes a lot in legal cases and a great deal of interference on the part of the Prosecutor General has undermined the prosecutors' independence,” noted the CRJM chair.
Vladislav Gribincea believes that the people's expectations as regards the restoration of justice are much higher than the possibilities of justice to self-purify and this puts a great pressure on politicians to act more firmly. In his opinion, what authorities have announced about the reform of justice is only a part of it. "It concerns the emergency measures to be taken in the coming months or weeks. A larger package of reforms that will focus on a new justice reform strategy should come by the end of this year and be implemented in the next few years. The reforms announced yesterday (August 28) are important and painful reforms, I would say, but which must be carried out very quickly," said Vladislav Gribincea.
According to him, no justice reform will be perceived as genuine unless it is done with good intentions. In his vision, politicians must learn from the lessons of the past, that the half measures in justice do not generate the expected effects. Similarly, politicians must give up control over justice if they want a truly effective and independent justice system.
