Justice Minister starts the procedures for the removal from office of PG Augustin Lazar. Report on Lazar’s activity reaches CSM, Lazar to be heard on November 13. Iohannis reacts to JusMin’s request to have Prosecutor General dismissed: The request, unsuitable. President demands that Toader resign

The assessment report on Augustin Lazar’s activity has reached the Superior Council of the Magistracy (CSM) on Thursday, and its Section for Prosecutor has decided to hear the Prosecutor General on November 13, the substantiation set to be issued on November 21, judicial source have told MEDIAFAX. Justice Minister Tudorel Toader announced on Wednesday that he would start the procedures for the removal from office of Prosecutor General Augustin Lazar.   JusMin Toader on PG Lazar’s assessment: Report is structured on five chapters and has 63 pages   He presented a report on Lazar’s managerial activity. “The report is structured on five chapters, on five parts. The first part refers to the legal basis, the legal ground. The second part refers to the premises of this report. The third part [refers] to the assessment itself. The fourth – the conclusions. The fifth part – proposals. The report has 63 pages,” Minister Tudorel Toader stated. “Pursuant to the provisions of Article 54 (4), in conjunction with Article 51 (2) (b) of Law 303/2004, as further amended and supplemented in regards to the statute of judges and prosecutors, I am hereby commencing the procedure for the removal from office of Romania’s Prosecutor General Mr Augustin Augustin Lazar,” Toader said at the Ministry of Justice. He added that the assessment report and the proposal for the removal of the attorney general, will be submitted to the Prosecution Section of the Supreme Council of Magistrates (CSM) in the evening to study for an analysis and a consultative opinion, as well as to the President of Romania for a decision in accordance with his legal powers on the matter. Toader added that the facts listed in the report are “intolerable” for the rule of law, and Lazar’s managerial activity violates his constitutional and legal obligations. “We consider that the actions and deeds listed in this report, intolerable for the rule of law, show that Mr Augustin Lazar’s managerial activity violates his constitutional and legal obligations. Given the circumstances, the continued occupation and exercise by Mr Lazar of the highest office of the Public Prosecution Service is no longer tenable. All the evidence presented support the seriousness of the behaviours, the public messages of the attorney general who, through the management implemented, hijacked the activity of the Public Prosecution Service away from its constitutional role,” said Toader.   Justice Minister questions the legality of Augustin Lazar’s appointment as Prosecutor General   Justice Minister Tudorel Toader stated on Wednesday, in his statement regarding the assessment of Prosecutor General Augustin Lazar’s activity, that the latter was appointed in office by the President in the absence of an evaluation, at the proposal of Minister Raluca Pruna, the dossier nevertheless containing a resolution to close the case concerning President Klaus Iohannis. “On 27 April 2016, he signed the appointment in the office of Prosecutor General, without the evaluation of the professional performance criteria. It results that the Justice Minister at the time nominated the Prosecutor General by not observing the legal criteria and procedures. The President of the Republic did not verify the legality of the evaluation in the proposed nomination. Why did the Justice Minister send the dossier without it being complete, why did the President appoint in office without the verification of legality; we don’t believe there is any connection between the appointment in office and one of the documents included in the candidacy dossier, in which – and I don’t understand why – there is a resolution to close the case concerning the incumbent Romanian President, issued by prosecutor Lazar. I can’t find the explanation,” Tudorel Toader stated. Augustin Lazar was appointed Prosecutor General on 28 April 2016, by President Klaus Iohannis, having been nominated by then-Justice Minister Raluca Pruna. “The question is why did the Prosecutor General oppose the evaluation of the DNA Chief. I don’t believe he didn’t know the rapport between the regulations and the law. I believe he wanted to pre-empt his potential evaluation. Proceeding to evaluate him, we raise at least two question marks. The first concerns the legality of appointing the Prosecutor General in this high office. On 17 February 2016 – the Justice Ministry initiated the selection procedure for the Prosecutor General office. The criteria and conditions that were enunciated, which we have in the personnel file at the Ministry of Justice, stipulated, among other things, the legal conditions and the ‘Very good’ mark at the last assessment. On 15 March 2016 – the candidacy of Mr Prosecutor Augustin Lazar was registered at the Justice Ministry. On 21 April 2016 – the Prosecutors’ Section of the CSM [the Superior Council of Magistracy] issues a positive opinion regarding the Justice Minister’s proposal. One week after: on 28 April – Romania’s President signs the appointment decree for the Prosecutor General office. Coming back from 2016 to nowadays when we make the assessment and what do we find? That in the candidacy file, at the respective moment, there was no indication of a document proving that the criterion for obtaining the “Very Good” mark at the latest activity assessment was met. Which means that there was a piece missing from the file in the assessment and appointment – the mark, the assessment over the latest period,” Toader said when presenting the report on the managerial activity of the Chief Prosecutor of Prosecutor’s Office attached to the High Court of Cassation and Justice (PICCJ). “It’s true that the opinion issued by the Section for Prosecutors does not mention the failure to meet this requirement. I’ve tried to document this report, there was no evaluation, it remained at the CSM. I asked the CSM to put our disposal the evaluation reports. We were told: this evaluation report was drawn up today, 20 April 2017, in three copies. So, long after his appointment. As I was saying, the [appointment in office] decree was signed on 28 April 2016. The President signed the appointment against the backdrop in which evidence that the criteria had been met did...