Moldovan MPs make amendments to law on Prosecutor General's Office

Chisinau, 19 July /MOLDPRES/ - The person due to fulfill the interim duties of the office of Prosecutor General will be nominated by the Moldovan president, at a proposal by the Superior Council of Prosecutors (CSP). The lawmakers passed a draft law regulating the vacancy of this position in two readings today.    

Under the draft, the CSP meeting, during which the proposal is made, is held three days after the appearance of the office’s vacancy at the latest. The interim duties will be exercised till the organization of the contest and the appointment of a new prosecutor general by presidential decree.

The president of Moldova will be able to turn down the candidacy put forward by CSP, if incontestable evidence of candidate’s incompatibility with the concerned position, of violation of the legislation or the legal procedures of his/her selection were discovered.    

If the candidacy is rejected or in case the Superior Council of Prosecutors does not put forward the candidacy in the aforementioned period, the acting prosecutor general will be nominated by presidential decree at a proposal by the parliament, with the CSP’s approval. The parliament will put up the candidacy in three days at the latest after the president turns down the candidacy or after the expiration of the term in which the Superior Council of Prosecutors was to put forward the candidacy.    

So far, the vacancy of the position of Prosecutor General has not been clearly regulated in the law. The legal norm in force regulates the way the interim duties of the office of Prosecutor General are ensured in the cases of his/her absence or impossibility of fulfilling the job duties.

The former prosecutor general, Eduard Harunjen, resigned from office on 11 July 2019. At present, Deputy Prosecutor General Igor Popa exercises the interim duties of prosecutor general.