PG Lazar calls official decision unlawful, challenges it in court

Prosecutor General Augustin Lazar said on Monday that he had appealed against a decision by the plenum of the Supreme Council of Magistrates (CSM) that he had violated the Code of Ethics of Judges and Prosecutors when he spoke about “high-ranking convicts,” and the court is expected to rule on it. “I challenged the decision by the plenum of the Supreme Council of Magistrates of December 3, 2018, by which, at the limit of the majority, the decision of the Prosecution Section no 376 of June 26, 2018, which established that there are no indications regarding violation of the provisions of Article 17 of the Code of Ethics of Judges and Prosecutors, was repealed. I consider the plenary solution of the Supreme Council of Magistrates to be unlawful, and so the relevant court, notified within the legal term, may rule on the objection I raised,” reads a message posted by Lazar on the Facebook page of the Public Prosecution Service. Lazar told Agerpres on Monday that the CSM plenary decision is unlawful and he will challenge it in court. The CSM plenum ruled on Monday that there is evidence of the violation by Attorney General Augustin Lazar of the Code of Ethics when he spoke about “high-ranking convicts” when referencing members of the special parliamentary committees. Last year, Lazar made a statement in which he spoke about high-ranking convicts, referring to some members of the special parliamentary committees. The Judicial Inspection proposed penalising Lazar, arguing that Lazar had violated the Code of Ethics when he claimed that “high-ranking convicts” are harassing prosecutors in special parliamentary committees. On June 26, the CSM Prosecutor’s Section rejected the application for reprimand, but the Judicial Inspection challenged the decision with the CSM plenum. On Monday, the CSM plenum sustained by a majority vote, the Judicial Inspection’s appeal.   High-ranking defendants are the competence of the National Anticorruption Directorate, that’s what the law says   Prosecutor General Augustin Lazar stated on Monday that the National Anticorruption Directorate’s prerogative is to investigate “high-ranking defendants,” the goal of the institution being to fight “mid- and high-level” corruption. “High-ranking defendants are the competence of the National Anticorruption Directorate, if you read the law, that’s exactly what it’s written there; the National Anticorruption Directorate is made to fight a certain type of criminality – corruption – but not at a low level but at mid and high levels, most often at high level. Consequently, the DNA’s defendants are high-ranking defendants,” Prosecutor General Augustin Lazar stated on Monday when arriving at the Superior Council of the Magistracy (CSM). The 20 reasons that the Justice Minister invoked when he proposed that Augustin Lazar be dismissed from the helm of the Public Ministry included “grave public communication behaviour and problems: practicing and encouraging behaviour that runs counter to constitutional and legal obligations.” “If the highest-ranking voice of the Public Ministry calls parliamentarians ‘high-ranking defendants,’ what is the public message and what effect does it generate on the citizens’ confidence in elected representatives and in the measures that they adopt,” Tudorel Toader pointed out in his evaluation report on Augustin Lazar.  

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