The Final Act of Violence Against the Justice System

Christian RUSSU

During the last session, the current parliament changed the legislation on the justice system and prosecution bodies for the thirteenth (!) time. During the voting, the ruling party almost failed the unity test, thus violating Moldova’s commitments in the EU accession negotiations

As one of the opposition MPs aptly put it, four years ago the ruling regime began its intervention in the justice sector under the “fight against corruption” slogan and now it ends under the slogan “fight against anticorruption”. During this period of legislative violence against the justice system, the initiators and writers of the reform have turned into ardent opponents of its continuation, becoming almost split within the ruling party. In order to fight dissent and demonstrate an imaginary unity, the PAS leadership has to resort to the practices of authoritarian regimes, which it itself has been mercilessly criticizing all these years. Now let’s dig into details. A week after the registration of the scandalous bill on the liquidation of the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office and the Prosecutor’s Office for Combating Organized Crime, the authorities managed to push it through the first reading in parliament. The speed of the process surprised both experts and the public. Public hearings on the draft law were announced for the morning of 19 February on the same day. At the same time, the mandatory participants of these hearings - the prosecutor’s and magistrate’s offices themselves - had received the relevant notice just the day before. So, some of them did not have time both to prepare their comments and even to arrive. The obvious purpose of the hearings was only in the fact that they were held - for the sake of appearance, as they say. But even from the hearings it became clear that the authorities intend to push ahead with the final act of violence against the justice system in the next fortnight. By the beginning of next month, they want to pass the bill in the second reading, because until 21 March Veronica Dragalin will formally still be in office. The rush is such that no one even bothered to ask the Venice Commission and other European institutions for their opinion before the first reading. It is clear that the PAS simply does not see the need for this: it will not be possible to consider the bill at the next March session of the VC, and no one is going to drag the matter out until June. What is even more interesting, the parliamentary vote came the day after the news that the European Parliament, the European Commission and the EU Council had agreed on a record 1.9 billion euros in economic aid to Moldova. That is, the ruling party in its abuses is once again covering itself with the “full and unconditional support of Brussels”. The final approval of this package in the European Parliament is scheduled for the beginning of March, when the issue of liquidation of prosecutor’s offices should be closed. Apparently, the authorities’ plan looks like this: to create a fait accompli of the changes made for the EU, taking advantage the European Commission’s report with a positive assessment of Moldova’s progress in the main section of the rule of law and fundamental rights. It is about the very screening of the legal framework, which should allow launching negotiations on membership in clusters. It goes without saying that there was no talk of reformatting the prosecutor’s office. The basis for the reforms in the justice sector was the strategy agreed with Brussels, where the main goals are the so-called “pre-vetting”, “vetting”, the formation of new self-governing bodies of justice and, separately, the creation of independent specialized prosecutor’s offices. It is clear that the actions of PAS are of purely internal political nature. Six months before the elections, it needs to protect itself from any risks related to the work of the already reformed structures. It is well known to all those involved that criminal cases of corruption in state institutions during the period of “yellow power” are at the finish line in the prosecutor’s office. The new law will actually slow down the work of prosecutors on sensitive issues for these very six months, which the regime needs. Judge for yourself. According to the plan, the Prosecutor General is to appoint the interim head of the new structure, called PACO, and then present the candidates for a competition. The latter will be re-evaluated by a new, specially created commission, which will not only approve the “most worthy” prosecutor, but will also check their “performance” if necessary. All 90 prosecutors from the two current instances will be dismissed and offered to move to territorial prosecutor’s offices, where there is room for only 30 of them. What kind of continuation of investigations and referral of criminal cases to the courts can we talk about? All those currently under legal supervision: the accused, suspects, etc. will get a temporary respite, which they will have to manage somehow, and the ruling party will surely make them an offer. During this time, for example, one can become a sponsor of PAS and thus make an investment in one’s freedom and security. Some PAS deputies during the discussion of the draft law directly demanded the transfer of the prosecutor’s office under parliamentary control, as if unaware of the provision of the basic law on the separation of powers and the independence of the prosecutor’s office. As already mentioned, this accountability will be needed for the next few months until the elections. The ruling regime does not care much about what will happen afterwards. Of course, there were defenders of the honor and dignity of prosecutors in parliament. This time, the opposition unanimously condemned the act of lawlessness performed by the “yellow”. Even among PAS deputies there was an alternative point of view, which was voiced by Olesea Samate. It did not differ much from the opinion of the opposition factions, prosecutor’s office and civil society during the hearings on 19 February. Parallel to the parliamentary session, the opponents of the plans to eliminate the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office, including judges, prosecutors and public activists, even held a separate event where they stigmatized the authorities for their authoritarian tendencies. We can say that under the leadership of Olesea Stamate, a situational coalition of diverse forces with a political agenda and, therefore, electoral prospects was formed. As for the ruling party’s plans. After long debates and discussions on the scandalous bill, the speaker of the parliament Igor Grosu referred to the impossibility of electronic voting and suggested a manual counting, demanding to control the raising of hands by his fellow party members. The PAS leadership was able to ensure the desired result only by such extraordinary measures. Olesea Stamate left the meeting hall in protest, while the rest of the faction, with 61 votes of the deputies, as if preserved its unity. The only question is for how long?