UPDATE/JusMin Toader says he is to send to President Iohannis PG Lazar's dismissal request

Justice Minister Tudorel Toader announced that he will send on Thursday to President Klaus Iohannis the official request for the dismissal of Prosecutor General Augustin Lazar, as well as the proposals for appointment in five leadership positions within the Prosecutor General's Office, which the head of state had previously rejected on lack of legality grounds.

"Today, I will send to the President of the republic the request for the dismissal from office of Romania's Prosecutor General. It's been almost two months. You know the procedures that were carried out so far. You know that the Prosecutor General is stalling, it's no secret to anyone. At a personal level he can be understood, but as Prosecutor General it's impossible to understand, because he addressed to the Courts of Appeals, to the contentious administrative of Alba Iulia as an individual, back home, but I didn't assess him as an individual, but as a Prosecutor General. (...) I referred to the managerial deficiencies that he proved," Toader explained at a conference held at the Justice Ministry headquarters.

He brought to mind that the PG asked, through the action filed in Alba Iulia, for the request to be sent to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in view of deciding whether or not the Minister can assess the Prosecutor General's activity, a request that has been rejected.

"The Court declined jurisdiction to the Court of Appeals, which declined jurisdiction back to Alba Iulia and that negative competence conflict emerged, but the competence regulator is the Supreme Court - the High Court, that will decide, (...) will issue a motivation, will send the case and we will probably enter January-February," Tudorel Toader stated.

In his view, this action represents "stalling," without any connection to the substance of the case.

"I believe that this manner of stalling has nothing to do with the substance of the case, with the assessment report and the dismissal procedure, today I will sent the official dismissal request to the President, founded on the three components of the assessment report based on the law, article 132 of the Constitution, Decision No.358 of the Constitutional Court. Today, I will also send to the President, I will basically come again with the official request for the appointment of the five prosecutors with leadership positions that the president rejected, arguing that the proposal made by the Justice Minister includes aspects of illegality, namely that the candidates' files don't contain that certificate from the CNSAS [the National Council for the Study of Securitate Archives]," Toader stated.

He added that there are high-ranking candidates in office who weren't asked by the president about the previous CNSAS checks.

"Recently, the prosecutor-in-chief of the DIICOT [the Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism] was appointed with all the procedure, but nobody asked him whether or not the CNSAS check exists in the the file. Therefore, the same decision-making body cannot employ a biased standpoint, this double standard," Justice Minister Toader mentioned. AGERPRES (RO - author: Daniel Alexandru Florea, editor: Claudia Stanescu; EN - author: Rodica State, editor: Adina Panaitescu)