​ACTING PG EDUARD HARUNJEN DECLARED WINNER IN CONTEST FOR PROSECUTOR GENERAL’S POST

Superior Council of Prosecutors (SCP) Chairman Mircea Rosioru declared Acting Prosecutor General Eduard Harunjen as winner of the contest for this position.

According to him, Harunjen, who was fulfilling the duties of Prosecutor General (PG) since March 1, gained the highest number of points at interview, written exam and lie-detector test among 6 candidates. The last stage of the contest took place on Wednesday. Interview with candidates lasted more than 5 hours.

“Eduard Harunjen candidature will be proposed for approval to Moldovan President. The contest general results with specification of points candidates received, will be published within 24 hrs at the PGO website. This contest is the first for Moldova and the SCP, but I suppose that it was quite successful”, Rosioru said.

In his turn, Harunjen said to journalists that in case he is appointed to the post of Prosecutor General, he intends to finalize the prosecution system reforming, to implement the Law on prosecution in full.

“If the President appoints me as PG, I will do my best to regain trust of citizens in prosecution agencies and raise the level of prosecutors’ professionalism. I will make everything I can to ensure real independence of prosecution bodies, as well as to bring to an end the investigation on loud cases, which are currently under consideration in the PGO. All this has to contribute to changing the state of things in the country”, said PG candidate.

He also stated about the necessity of personnel change in the prosecution system, including by means of dismissing some prosecutors and attracting new young specialists. Harunjen refrained from commenting on statements made by Socialists, who said that they will not recognize the results of the contest for PG post.

“We have done everything to ensure the implementation of the Law on Prosecution System. There is only one step to be made now – the appointment of a Prosecutor General. We can see that politicians want to preserve the influence on prosecution. It depends on them whether we will be able or not to liberate the prosecution system from under politicians’ control together”, Harunjen stressed.

Eduard Harunjen is 44. In 1994, he graduated from the Faculty of Law in Moldovan State University. Since 1992, he had worked as acting investigator in the Sectorul Centru of Chisinau prosecution office. He went through all the stages of career: from prosecutor in Chisinau prosecution office to first Deputy Prosecutor General, he was appointed in July 2015.

At the end of November, the Parliament empowered the Moldovan President with the right to appoint prosecutor general. This is provided in amendments to the Constitution. According to new provisions, Prosecutor General is appointed by the President at the proposal of the Superior Council of Prosecutors for a term of 7 years without the right of mandate prolongation.

Previously, Constitution was saying that the Prosecutor General is being appointed by the Parliament at the proposal of Speaker for a period of 5 years. The draft was adopted for harmonizing the Constitution with provisions of the new Law on Prosecutor General’s Office, adopted by the Parliament in February 2016. The Law entered into force on August 1, while Constitution provisions have been preserved in previous edition. The Parliament was able to change the Main Law only after the reform was supported by the opposition Party of Socialists, whose leader Igor Dodon won the recent presidential election in Moldova.