What Violeta Gasitoi says about Veronica Dragalin’s message to prosecutors

A prominent Moldovan lawyer Violeta Gasitoi, who resides in the United States, sharply criticized the behavior of the chief anti-corruption officer Veronica Dragalin at a meeting with her subordinates. In a Facebook post, Violeta Gasitoi wrote that after the full recording appeared, it could be understood that anti-corruption prosecutors were explicitly threatened that if they filed complaints against their colleagues that they knew or suspected were illegal, and if the prosecutor was somehow under the protection of a superior, the complainant would be fired on the charge of making false statements, without the complaint being reviewed according to criminal procedure law and verified as to whether the statements were false or not. “In other words, a report of corruption or other crimes requires the prosecutor’s office, in accordance with the law, to launch an investigation based on a notice, to summon the person who reported the misconduct and prosecute this individual for making false testimony and hear him or her, then proceed to investigate and accumulate evidence that can answer whether there is a crime in the informer’s actions, whether the denouncement was false or not. If the denouncement was false, the person was warned about the responsibility for false denunciation, and he or she risks being investigated and punished. But if you have not investigated, the person has not signed that he or she is responsible for the false denunciation, how would you punish him or her, for what? What I understood from the monologue with 58 “I” pronouns is that God forbid you to complain to me about someone I am defending. I will not start investigation, but I will throw you out and accuse you of lying, I will humiliate you to the point where you want to apologize, withdraw your complaint, because of “me”. Today I feel sorry for where the Anticorruption Prosecutor's Office is headed,” Violeta Gasitoi wrote. The lawyer also asks if anyone has heard Romanian prosecutor Laura Codruzza Covesi act so childish. “Has anyone heard so much useless chatter? When Laura Codruzza Covesi went to a press conference and presented her findings, well just listen to her. Moldova combines to this end infancy, a school teacher approach and a market ambience, but in no way is this the behavior of a lawyer, an educated, competent person, a prosecutor who really knows what she has to do and actually does it, but also has tangible results, understands and knows what she has to do and how to achieve those results. Stop this lawlessness, because it’s getting harder for us!” the lawyer added, urging officials concerned to focus on their jobs. It should be noted that blogger Eugen Luchianiuc published the full version of the audio recording from the meeting of the Anticorruption Prosecutor's Office, after a part of Veronica Dragalin’s statements appeared in the media yesterday.