Olesea Virlan Leaves the Superior Council of Prosecutors

Olesea Virlan, a member of the Superior Council of Prosecutors, resigned. The SCP accepted her application. The decision followed the scandalous cancellation of the competition to choose the Prosecutor General. “I highly appreciate this decision of Ms. Virlan. It shows responsibility, maturity and dedication. The courage with which she made such a request is commendable. In this case, the public interest, institutional interests prevailed, rather than personal interests in preserving the stability of the mandate of the SCP member,” said Dumitru Obada, Chair of the Superior Council of Prosecutors. He had earlier hinted that he was awaiting Virlan’s resignation, otherwise he himself had threatened to resign. On Wednesday, the Superior Council of Prosecutors cancelled the contest for the post of Prosecutor General after Olesea Virlan failed to argue why she had given a lower score to candidate Ion Munteanu, the interim prosecutor general. She gave candidate Munteanu a score of 3.5 in the interview, which was very different from the scores of other SCP members. On 29 February, Virlan issued a clarification in which she admitted that she was wrong and gave such a score by mistake. *** The contest for the post of Prosecutor General started on 23 October 2023. At the end of December, the parliamentary majority simplified the procedure for electing the Prosecutor General. He will be chosen from among those who gain a majority of votes in the Superior Council of Prosecutors, abandoning the point system. The Prosecutor General’s Office has already been headed for two years by interim acting head Ion Munteanu, who applied to run for the post. Previously, the Prosecutor General was elected on the basis of a higher number of points conferred by the SCP members after an interview stage. The post of Prosecutor General became vacant after the head of state Maia Sandu signed a decree on the dismissal of discharged Prosecutor General Alexandr Stoianoglo.