Basescu’s view on Prosecutor General’s dismissal: It shocks me. (…) Couldn’t Tudorel Toader leave Lazar in office until after New Year’s

Senator Traian Basescu (PMP), ex-President of Romania, stated on Sunday, referring to the dismissal from office of Prosecutor General Augustin Lazar, that he is shocked by the vulgar level reached by relations between institutions and that Justice Minister Tudorel Toader’s action is an excess. “I’m shocked by the vulgar level reached by the relations between institutions. Even though they are political appointees, they believe they are appointed in office forever. I believe Tudorel Toader’s action is an excess. If I were him, I would ask Lazar to resign, not the way he did,” Traian Basescu stated on RomaniaTV. He added that Minister Tudorel Toader’s decision comes at a bad moment, when he is “under the scrutiny of the European Commission, European Parliament.” “You take a bottle of gasoline and pour it over the fire. Lazar’s term runs until April. Couldn’t Tudorel Toader leave Lazar there until after the New Year’s? The appointment of two chief prosecutors from Sibiu, with connections, was uninspired. If there was a situation in which Mr Lazar issued a decision not to prosecute Iohannis, he should have abstained from appointing him,” the ex-President added. Last Wednesday, Minister Tudorel Toader triggered the procedure to have Prosecutor General Augustin Lazar dismissed from office. The CSM will hear the Prosecutor General on November 13, in order to issue its non-binding opinion. President Klaus Iohannis has conveyed that the Justice Minister’s request on having the Prosecutor General dismissed from office is completely unsuitable and liable to generate distrust in the system and concern. “Romanian President Klaus Iohannis has received and will analyse the Report on the managerial activity at the Prosecutor’s Office attached to the High Court of Cassation and Justice, with the proposal to dismiss from office Mr Augustin Lazar. President Klaus Iohannis appreciates the Prosecutor General’s activity and considers that the Justice Minister’s request is completely unsuitable and liable to generate distrust in the system and concern among our European partners. The manner in which the minister publicly presented the report is tendentious and denotes his intention to politically subordinate the prosecutors,” the Presidential Administration pointed out.   “Iohannis is the only one who can designate the liar between Toader and Lazar”   Popular Movement Party (PMP) Senator Traian Basescu stated that President Klaus Iohannis is the only one who can “designate the liar” between Tudorel Toader and Augustin Lazar, pointing out that if the Prosecutor General did include in the dossier a decision to close a case concerning Iohannis then the Head of State has a big problem. “President Iohannis does not have the right to silence! Tudorel Toader states that in the dossier that the Justice Ministry forwarded to the CSM and to Iohannis, as part of the process to appoint the Prosecutor General, there was allegedly an ordinance through which Augustin Lazar allegedly approved a decision not to prosecute the President. If that is so, it would look like the blackmailing of the Romanian President. Augustin Lazar stated that such a document wasn’t present in his dossier,” Traian Basescu wrote on Facebook on Monday. The ex-President added that, after Iohannis makes a statement about these aspects, then the person who lied, namely the Justice Minister or the Prosecutor General, must immediately resign. “It’s clear that one of the two – either Toader or Lazar – unashamedly lies; one to dismiss the other, and the other to stay in office. President Iohannis does not have the right to silence, because he is the only one who can “designate” the liar, by publicly saying whether in Augustin Lazar’s dossier there was an ordinance on not starting a prosecution against him, ordinance approved by Augustin Lazar. The minute after the President’s statement, the liar must resign. P.S. – If the document was in the dossier then Mr Iohannis has a big problem too,” Basescu concluded. Traian Basescu’s statements come against the backdrop in which Prosecutor General Augustin Lazar stated last Friday that he asked the Superior Magistracy Council (CSM) for information on the decision to close a case concerning Klaus Iohannis, which Tudorel Toader claims to have found in Lazar’s candidacy dossier. Prosecutor General Augustin Lazar added that such a document was not found. On the other hand, Justice Minister Tudorel Toader has stated for MEDIAFAX that in the upcoming days he will publish the decision to close the case concerning Klaus Iohannis, which he found in Augustin Lazar’s candidacy dossier. The decision comes after Justice Minister Tudorel Toader stated last Wednesday, when announcing the triggering of the dismissal of Prosecutor General Augustin Lazar, that the latter was appointed by the President in the absence of an evaluation, having been nominated by then-Justice Minister Raluca Pruna, his candidacy dossier containing a decision to close a case concerning President Klaus Iohannis. Nominated by the then-Justice Minister Raluca Pruna, Augustin Lazar was appointed Prosecutor General by President Klaus Iohannis on 28 April 2016.