Moldovan president says discussions should be held on confiscated money, not only on sequestrated money

Chisinau, 6 September /MOLDPRES/ - President Maia Sandu on 5 September summoned the Supreme Security Council (CSS). The participants in the event discussed the progress made and the obstacles to the process of making justice, the priorities of the legislative agenda as to the justice reform, as well as the combating and counteraction of the terrorist actions. The participants in the meeting considered measures needed in order to enhance the degree of reliability of the justice act and to increase the speed of examination of the corruption files, the presidential press service has reported.    

The head of state pointed out the key problems which harm the citizens’ confidence in the justice act: the perception of certain actions and files as politicized; leaks of information, which compromise the inquiries and shows lack of integrity in the investigation teams; lack of files’ finality. CSS recommended the working out of a stricter mechanism of raising the responsibility for the leaks of information in the process of files’ management and the legislation’s amendment as regards the exoneration from criminal liability due to the expiration of the limitation period, in order to exclude abuses through the procrastination of criminal files. Also, the Superior Council of Magistracy will consider the opportunity of the establishment of specialized panels of judges in courts, in order to enhance the capacity of investigation of judging of big corruption cases.      

As for the fact that, at present, over seven billion lei is under seizure and confiscation in diverse big corruption cases, President Maia Sandu said that the leadership would be able to speak about progress only when this money enters the budget and will be used for the citizens’ needs. As a result, the head of state asked for the consolidation and enhancement of the operation capacities of the National Crime Assets Recovery Agency (ARBI) at the National Anticorruption Centre (CNA) and of the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office, as well as the use of all available instruments to optimize the work of courts.    

As for the combating and counteraction of terrorist actions, including the bomb alerts, Maia Sandu said that they targeted the bringing of the feeling of anxiety and fear in the society, as well as that the big corrupt people resort to them to procrastinate the trials. Therefore, the Intelligence and Security Service and the Interior Ministry are to elaborate a joint mechanism of assessing the risks and to speed up the adoption of legislative amendments due to toughen the punishments for this kind of offences.   

Photo: Presidency