UPDATE DNA General Assembly supports request to JusMin Toader to cancel removal of AG Lazar

The General Assembly of the National Anti-Corruption Directorate (DNA) decided on Friday to support a request to Minister of Justice Tudorel Toader to cancel the procedures for the removal from office of Romania's Attorney General Augustin Lazar.

Following the initiation of the removal from office of Attorney General Mr. Augustin Lazar, the General Assembly of DNA met on October 26, 2018, at the request of over one third of all prosecutors within DNA, (...) to voice support of the joint statement of the Romanian Judges' Forum Association and the Movement for the Defence of the Prosecutors' Statutes dated October 25, 2018," reads a DNA press statement released on Friday.

The DNA General Assembly also adopted a message requesting for the safeguard of the independence of prosecutors.

"DNA prosecutors are hereby voicing their attachment to the values of the rule of law and respect for the principle of judicial independence overall, which implies clear, strong and effective safeguards to respect the independence of prosecutors in the exercise of their duties provided for by law. Consequently, the removal of prosecutors holding senior positions must be thoroughly justified against objective criteria and avoid the risk of disproportionate decisions and a climate of intimidation and pressure on prosecutors," reads the message.

By Friday morning, more than 1,000 magistrates had already expressed their support to the request to Minister of Justice Tudorel Toader to abandon the procedures for removing Romania's attorney general, according to the Judges' Forum. The association published a list of 1,030 judges, prosecutors and court auditors who supported the request sent to Tudorel Toader.

The Romanian Judges' Forum Association and the Movement for the Protection of the Status of Prosecutors Association have asked the Justice Minister on Thursday to abandon the dismissal of Augustin Lazar.

"The Romanian Judges' Forum Association, a professional association of judges, and the Movement for the Defence of the Prosecutors' Statutes, a professional association of prosecutors, are hereby firmly asking the Minister of Justice, Tudorel Toader, to immediately abandon the procedure for removing from office Attorney General Augustin Lazar. Such a procedure, which practically bypasses the guarantor of judicial independence, namely the Supreme Council of Magistrates (CSM), whose role is for show only, and which disregards the right of defence of the prosecutor subject to removal, was harshly criticised by the Venice Commission, GRECO and the European Commission, endangering Romania's path inside the European Union and in the Council of Europe, and the democratic existence of the Romanian state itself, not to mention the negative and discouraging signal to an important part of the magistrates." AGERPRES (RO - author: George Onea, editor: Claudia Stanescu; EN - author: Corneliu-Aurelian Colceriu, editor: Adina Panaitescu)