Head of Magistrates' Investigation Section: PG hampered unit's activity, requiring gov't to intervene via emergency ordinances

The Chief Prosecutor of the Magistrates' Investigation Section, Gheorghe Stan, said on Thursday evening that Prosecutor General Augustin Lazar had hampered the institution's activity so much so, that the legislator had to exceptionally intervene through three emergency ordinances in order to remove these obstacles. Stan said there had been positive signals about the establishment of this special unit, but the PG had raised obstacles to its activity. "Despite many positive signals from the magistrates, who welcomed the establishment of this section, right from the moment the section became operational we encountered obstacles raised by the management of the Public Prosecution Office, actually the PG, as regards logistics, the conception of the organizational chart, but also with the interpretation of the principles that govern the activity of the Public Prosecution Office," Stan said in a press statement. According to him, to help overcome the obstacles, the government had to intervene via three ordinances, OUG No. 7 included. "Given the circumstances, in order to overcome these obstacles, the legislator had to exceptionally intervene via three regulatory acts that clarify the legal provisions required by the special section to work properly. Thus, OUG No. 90 had to be issued in order to keep with the legal requirement to render this special section operational by October 23, 2018. (...) OUG No. 92/2018 was required for the purpose of clarifying certain provisions regarding the procedure for the selection of prosecutors with execution duties who were to work at this section. As far as the section's activity is concerned, OUG No. 7 was necessary to correlate the rules regarding the competence of the section's chief prosecutor in connection with the provisions of article 339 paragraph (1) and (3) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, according to which complaints against the measures ordered by, or the acts carried out by the prosecutor, or carried out based on his orders shall be handled by the respective prosecutor's hierarchical superior," Stan said. AGERPRES (RO - author: Eusebi Manolache, editor: Claudia Stanescu; EN - author: Simona Klodnischi, editor: Simona Iacob)