In a press conference held on Tuesday evening, Justice Minister Tudorel Toader has stated that the decision to start the assessment procedure of the Prosecutor General’s activity has not been exclusively taken based on recent circumstances, thus rebuking criticism that his action has been prompted by the investigation kicked off by the Prosecutor’s Office on the violence during the Diaspora rally on August 10.
According to Toader, his statement does not represent a retort or polemic against the latest debates in the public space.
“The statement according to which the assessment can be considered a form of pressure related to the solution to some files, such as the August 10 protest or the Revolution file doesn’t work. Within such logic, any assessment could be hardly carried out for files with social resonance will be always referred in court,” the Justice minister argued.
As for the protocols with the intelligence service, the minister said that the Prosecutor General used to be outraged in early 2017 that there were no such protocols in force. “The Prosecutor General made these statements considering he had just signed such a protocol in 2016. On March 19, 2018 I asked him to start the procedure to declassify the protocol signed in 2009. The next day I received that protocol, except for the last two pages,” Toader stated, adding that on the next day, March 20, the ministry received the protocol on the collaboration between SRI and the Prosecutor’s Office upon the High Court of Cassation and Justice, but he, as a minister, could not refer to its content, as it was confidential, and he could neither start any procedure to declassify it.
Toader argued that the fact the protocol had been sent to the Justice Ministry does not absolve its signatories. “They sent it to us for information, what for? The more the protocol signed in 2009 had been declassified.”
Justice minister also said that protocols are not natural in a rule of law state and their legality can be only established by the administrative legal court.
“It is pure defiance against the rule of law and against citizens the fact that a protocol from 2009 that had been abolished in 2016 is declassified in 2018,” the minister pointed out.
Justice Minister, Tudorel Toader, announced on Saturday he is triggering the legal procedure of assessing the activity of the Prosecutor General Augustin Lazar.
“I am triggering the legal procedure to assess the activity conducted by the Prosecutor General upon the High Court of Cassation and Justice. Several weeks ago, I said that time comes for everyone to be assessed. I appreciated the Prosecutor General’s availability to declassify the Protocol signed in 2009. Lately we find out that actually a protocol signed in 2016 has been made public. (…) The assessment results will be made public in 30 days at the most,” Minister Tudorel Toader wrote on Facebook.
The announcement comes after the release to the public of the Protocol signed in 2016 between the Prosecutor General’s Office and the Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI). One variant, not secret, was posted on the Public Ministry’s website, several hours later a secret variant was posted by Government adviser, Darius Valcov, on his Facebook page. Both were signed on the same day, in December 2016, before the elections.
Prosecutor General, Augustin Lazar, has retorted that all issues regarding the protocols were known both by the Supreme Council of Magistracy and by the Justice Ministy, arguing the theme of protocols is false.
“The mentioning of the protocols to the public, again and again, is obviously a new attack against the Public Ministry, during a period when important files for the society are on the way to being solved, i.e. the 1989 Revolution file and the File on the violent events on August 10/11, 2018,” Lazar said.
Prosecutor General, Augustin Lazar, has revealed on Monday, during a press statement, the correspondence between the Public Ministry and the Justice Ministry on the topic of protocols with the Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI), saying ‘let’s see what the truth is about this embarrassing manipulation’.