DEMOCRATS CALL CONSTITUTIONAL COURT TO SUSPEND AMENDMENTS TO PROSECUTION LAW

On Monday, the once ruling but now opposition Democratic Party lodged an inquiry with the Constitutional Court demanding to suspend the force of the amendments to the Law on the Prosecution Service, approved by the Parliament recently, stipulating cardinal changes in the procedure of electing the country’s Prosecutor General.

In their inquiry, the Democrats wrote that some crucial provisions in the amendments are at serious odds with Constitution provisions.

“For instance, the new procedure of selecting Prosecutor General stipulated the institutionalization of a special commission headed by Minister of Justice, which novelty is in fact cancelling the role played by the Superior Council of Prosecutors. Besides this, the introduced changes in the composition of the Superior Council of Prosecutors [by adding 3 representatives of the civil society and of the Lawyers’ Union] will lead to reducing of the role played by professional prosecutors”, believe the Democrats.

“The adopted amendments stipulate the introduction of absolutely subjective and non-transparent grounds for dismissing of the Prosecutor General. And the recent cancellation of the already started contest in the Superior Council of Prosecutors was but an interference into the Council’s activities”, wrote the inquiry authors.

The Democrats have demanded from the Constitutional Court to urgently suspend the said amendments to the Law on the Prosecution Service stipulating the holding of the contest according to new rules, to check their correspondence to the Main Law, and to verify the constitutionality of the Parliament’s decision on appointing a candidacy for the Acting Prosecutor General and of the Presidential Decree on appointing the said candidacy.