Romanian Minister Denies Putting Pressure on Attorney General

A move by the Ministry of Justice to evaluate Romanian Attorney General Augustin Lazar's work has raised fears that the dismissal of anti-graft chief prosecutor Laura Codruta Kovesi in July was a dangerous precedent that exposes any chief prosecutor to political interference.

But Justice Minister Tudorel Toader said on Tuesday that he was not going to halt the evaluation process, despite pressure to end it.

"The idea that the evaluation of the Attorney General is a form of pressure related to the results of some investigations… is unfounded. Following this logic, any evaluation becomes difficult because there will always be investigations with social resonance," Toader told a press conference. 

Toader, the same minister who in January evaluated Kovesi and then asked the president to fire her based on the evaluation report, announced on Saturday on Facebook that he plans to also send an evaluation commission to look into Lazar's tenure as Attorney General.

Lazar, 63, has been in office since April 28, 2016, when he replaced Tiberiu Nitu, who resigned in January that year after he was accused of abuse of office. Nitu was cleared two years later.

Lazar, although not as famous as Kovesi at the international level, is one of the most well-known prosecutors in Romania.  

Before his appointment as Attorney General, he served as the head of the Alba County Prosecutor's Office, where he coordinated a decade-long investigation that in 2014 dismantled multiple criminal networks smuggling ancient relics from Romanian archaeological sites and repatriated 13 Dacian gold bracelets as well as over eight kilogrammes of ancient gold coins.

His tenure as Attorney General, however, has been marked by turmoil, with the ruling...