Assigning blame in Caracal case should be evidence not emotion-based say prosecutors' reps

About the recent tragic event in Caracal, where a hitch-hiking teenage girl was reportedly kidnapped, raped and murdered as the authorities took a long time to act on her emergency calls, the Prosecutors' Section of the Supreme Council of Magistrates (CSM) on Monday said that "the legal truth and responsibilities should be proven and established on the basis of evidence and in no way under the influence of public emotion or media pressure." "The prosecutors' section deeply regrets the tragic events that occurred in the Caracal area and is with the victims' hard-hit families. Amidst a flurry of public statements of late, the Prosecutors' Section of the Supreme Council of Magistrates (CSM) is urging all representatives of the institutions involved, the judiciary, to display decency and reservations over the events," according to a press statement released by the Prosecutors' Section on Monday. It also voices the section's disagreement with the "politicisation of the matter" and the "media attempts" at "influencing" public opinion in order to establish "at any price" judgments and to assign legal blame to magistrates "based on speculation despite factual elements having not been fully established." "The Prosecutors' Section wants to assure the public that the culprits will pay, but as in any ongoing investigation, the legal truth and responsibilities must be proven and established on the basis of evidence and in no way under the influence of public emotion or media pressure; all legal measures are should be taken to ensure that the work of the judiciary is carried out with all due diligence," according to the CSM statement. In order to be able to carry out its tasks, judicial bodies must be accorded an adequate legal framework and the necessary logistics and human resources. "The Prosecutors' Section has many times sounded the alarm over the deficiencies of the legislative process in criminal law, as well as concerns about amending the legislation on the organisation of the judiciary to weaken the response capacity and disposes the investigative bodies of tools. Experts of the European Commission, the Venice Commission and the Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) have also mentioned similar issues." The Prosecutors' Section is giving assurances that it will take all the necessary steps under its jurisdiction to increase the efficiency of the criminal prosecution process and the good dispensation of justice, while also waiting for the conclusions of the inspections carried out by the Prosecutor's Office with the Supreme Court of Justice and Cassation and the Judicial Inspection in connection with the events. AGERPRES (RO - author: Mihai Stoica, editor: Claudia Stanescu; EN - author: Corneliu-Aurelian Colceriu, editor: Adina Panaitescu)