Procedures for appointment of new chief prosecutors to resume

 Powered by Max Banner Ads 

Justice minister says the candidate should be a sum of moral qualities. PM Ponta reiterates the fact that prosecutors should stay independent from political influence and hierarchical subordination.

Justice Minister Mona Pivniceru yesterday participated at the meeting of the department for judges of the Superior Magistracy Council (CSM) as well as at the talks PM Victor Ponta had with the prosecutors on the Council. Mona Pivniceru said that she would hopefully resolve the matter of the appointment of the Prosecutor General and head of the National Anti-Corruption Directorate (DNA) as soon as possible. ‘I hope we deal with this by April so we can say: <<Habemus Papam>>”.After the CSM talks, she also said the procedures for the selection of the Prosecutor General and DNA Chief Prosecutor would be resumed the following week. On Friday, January 18, President Traian Basescu rejected Pivniceru’s proposed candidates: Tiberiu Mihail Nitu for Prosecutor General and Ioan Irimie for DNA, asking for a new selection procedure to be held. Asked if she expected any more prosecutors to apply within the transparent procedure, Pivniceru said that no longer depended on her. The minister also added that the two prosecutors she would propose would be known when the selection procedure was final. Pivniceru also said the Constitution should stipulate CSM’s exclusive prerogative of appointing the heads of the various prosecutor’s offices. The minister said prosecutors should be stable and, most of all, independent. ‘This is the aim that we should fulfil’, she noted. Previously, PM Victor Ponta had said, after his meting with the CSM prosecutors, that he had asked Mona Pivniceru to resume the procedure for the appointment of the Prosecutor General and DNA Chief Prosecutor. Victor Ponta says, in his opinion, the heads of prosecutor’s offices should be appointed by CSM and that the political factor should be removed completely from the procedure. ‘In my talks with the prosecutors’ department, we decided not to sabotage each other and introduce a transparent procedure. I suggested that we should have heads of prosecutor’s offices appointed in the shortest time possible, though a transparent procedure rather than by the president or the minister of justice’ said Victor Ponta after the meeting of the CSM prosecutors’ department. ‘When politicians have powers regarding the appointment of chiefs of prosecutor’s offices, there is inevitably a political element involved. My proposal was: <Let’s have truly independent prosecutors, not just in the current form, but much more independent, let there be no more hierarchic control and always have the impression that who controls or who appoints the Prosecutor General practically controls all prosecutors down to the last one, to the last prosecutor’s office attaches to a local court’, Pivniceru said. At the same time, Ponta said that first he wanted to send the message that the Government and political factor did not want to become involved in the CSM elections, because judges and prosecutors know best what needs to be done and are also accountable towards their colleagues in their decisions.

Morar, undecided

Acting Prosecutor General Daniel Morar, answering a question about his intention to apply for the position as head of the Public Ministry, yesterday said he was still thinking about it and noted that the selection procedure would hopefully be over by the time his delegation expired, on April 2. ‘Do not ask me to give you custom answers. It is my decision. I will see what I will do’, Daniel Morar said. Asked what he thought about the transparent procedure announced by Justice Minister Mona Pivniceru, namely that the press would have access during the interviews with the candidates for the leadership of the Public Ministry and DNA, Daniel Morar said: ‘We’ll wait and we’ll see’. So far, he has not applied, having repeatedly criticised the selection procedure.