The Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office believes that it is necessary to return to the previous version sent for approval, which would generate a reduction of about 23% of the total volume of criminal cases in the management of the PA or about 40% of the number of cases under criminal prosecution.
According to the PA, the institution manages over 1,100 cases, including approximately 600 that are in the criminal investigation phase and 500 that are in the trial phase. The PA prosecutors are responsible for the cases in the exercise of the criminal investigation body of the CNA (approximately 350 cases). At the same time, the prosecutors must prosecute the cases under the jurisdiction of the PA (approximately 250) and support the prosecution in court in all corruption and related cases (approximately 500 cases throughout the territory of the Republic of Moldova).
52 prosecutors work in the PA, of which 20% are prosecutors delegated from other prosecutor’s offices.
“We are aware of the criticism from citizens, experts from the country and abroad, development partners, including representatives of European Union structures, as well as from other people that, for too long, the authorities of the Republic of Moldova, responsible for fighting corruption and applying the law, investigates, prosecutes and convicts only low-level criminals”, reads the press release issued by the PA.
For the year 2022, out of 147 people convicted in cases where the state prosecution was supported by the PA, only 12% were sentenced to life imprisonment.
“This reflects the fact that the cases that come before the judges are mostly for less serious crimes, where the law allows conditional suspension of the execution of the prison sentence. If we want good results in high-profile cases, then the limited resources of PA prosecutors and CNA officers must be applied to combating high-level corruption and systemic corruption.”
We remind you that, on March 30, Parliament voted to delimit the powers of the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office (PA) and the National Anticorruption Center (CNA) to investigate high-level corruption cases. The authors of the legislative initiative propose that the function of criminal investigation for high-level corruption be exercised by the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office. At the same time, the National Anticorruption Center will investigate cases of systemic corruption, and petty corruption will be investigated by the criminal investigation body of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
