Moldovan president says external evaluation of judges, prosecutors must continue

Chisinau, 19 December /MOLDPRES/ - The external evaluation of the judges and prosecutors must continue. Also, the parliament is to intervene under law, in order to establish relatively short periods – six months, for the quick consideration of political corruption cases. President Maia Sandu today made statements to this effect, referring to the carrying out of the justice reform.  

At a news conference, Maia Sandu stressed that she shared with the citizens the frustrations as regards the slow changes in the justice sector and the quite modest actions of fight against corruption.

„We do not have here direct ways of intervention and the indirect ways sometimes work and sometimes do not quite work. It depends a lot also on the courage of the people who must wage this fight. If we talk about justice, we must continue the external extraordinary evaluation. I think that we have pretty good results in terms of elimination of the most corrupt people from the system. If I am not mistaken, there are over 60 judges who left the system. We have more serious problems with the extraordinary external evaluation of the prosecutors. And the willingness of the prosecutors from the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office (PA) to go through this exam leaves to be desired,’’ Maia Sandu said.   

The official noted that the citizens’ expectations were especially concerning the finality of the big corruption and political corruption cases, which affected not only Moldova’s image, but also each citizen individually.

„The governments does not settle cases; the governance cannot speed up the examination of these cases and especially make sure that they are correct and legally carried through. The proposal I made at the last meeting of the Supreme Security Council was that the parliament should intervene and establish relatively shorter terms under law. We talked about periods of six months for the consideration of these cases of political corruption, in order to avoid situations which we have seen so far, when no decisions are taken on these cases by law court or are delayed by the prosecutor’s office. Thus, we see these files covered with dust for years or see situations in which lawyers use all kinds of tricks, so that these decisions are not taken. So, if we proceed from the restrictions which we have through law and through Constitution, they represent a real measure, through which we can try to hurry up the examination of the cases,’’ Maia Sandu also said.    

The head of state noted that the prosecutor’s office, prosecutor general and the heads of the specialized prosecutor’s offices were in charge of the speed and quality with which the prosecutor’s office works on certain cases. .

„There is also the Superior Council of Prosecutors (CSP) and the Superior Council of Magistracy (CSM), which should act on their own initiative. We have a reformed CSM, with members who passed the extraordinary external evaluation. Thus, those who commit abuses must be sanctioned and these cases should be monitored, as the governance has also indirect instruments to intervene and one of them is this amendment of the law on the shortening of the period of cases’ consideration, which I hope will be approved by the parliament as soon as possible,’’ Maia Sandu said.    

In the Conclusions of the European Council, approved in Brussels on 17 December, the European institution urges Moldova to advance in the justice reform and fight against the corruption phenomenon.  

„While relying on the significant progress registered, Moldova should continue advancing in the comprehensive reform of the justice, including the verification process, as well as the advancing in the fight against corruption, focusing on the consolidation of the relevant institutions. The Council welcomes the systemic approach of Moldova on the de-oligarchization and encourages continuing the implementation of the action plan related,’’ the document reads.  

Also, the European Council welcomes the reforms from Moldova and reaffirms its support for the country’s European integration way.