PG Lazar's clear-headed message: Recent media hype all staged to vilify prosecutors

In an interview with AGERPRES Romania's Prosecutor General Augustin Lazar defends his fellow prosecutors against the tendency to generalize a media-induced perception that investigations would be falling short of professional standards, prosecutors would misconduct and use abusive lingo.

"I want to point out how harmful such in-advance judgment of ongoing procedures in media shows is, and of course the producers of these shows are interested in vilifying the investigators, casting them as grave offenders and most importantly generalise such cases as all-encompassing for the whole judiciary in order to claim that justice is incapable to self-regulate and therefore requires a firm intervention from outside to bring it back on track. This is an obvious manipulation of the situation. I assure you the Public Prosecution Office has highly-seasoned professionals with elevated spiritual and cultural condition who don't use coarse language, actually such lingo is not allowed, as we have a code of conduct in place that says irreverent behaviour is not allowed with both colleagues or litigants," Lazar said, mentioning that procedures are also in place for hearings, with a certain judicial style requiring only impartial questions to be asked.

There's been a lot of hype about recordings of which we still don't know if they are real, because in order to determine if a recording is original and can be used in a criminal procedure the experts require both the recording and the device it has been made with. And in many of the showcased incidents, no such device has been put forth and all these were actually collages put together for the media show to look best and render the subject more attractive. Such recordings are evidently manipulated, they are not original and their content is unreliable. That's for sure!, Augustin Lazar argued.

He went on to remark that had they been correct, before taking to television shows, those who put the recordings on the market should have reported to the competent prosecutor for him to handle the evidence, order the necessary tests and determine guilt. But the main interest was to get a media show rolling to give certain persons a leg up in the case and glean what evidence would be available to the prosecutor, cast doubt over his probity and accuse him of failure to carry out an objective investigation. I assure you all the investigations conducted by my colleagues are done with professionalism and verified by the direct superior, as regards the legality and the merits of the solution. The decisions can also be challenged with the section or unit chief prosecutor and then in court, but the no such complaints have been filed, which proves the media hype was all they were after, the PG explained.

I want to convey a message of confidence in the seriousness of the Public Prosecution Office staff who are perfectly aware of the responsibility lying on their shoulders, the Prosecutor General said. AGERPRES (RO - author: Eusebi Manolache, editor: Antonia Nita; EN - author/editor: Simona Klodnischi)