President Announces He Will Not Dismiss General Prosecutor

In a press conference, the president said that he is satisfied by General Prosecutor Augustin Lazar’s activity, and that the minister’s assessment in this regard was not done in accordance with legal regulations.

“The minister, probably having nothing else better to do, sent me the documents regarding the dismissal yet again. I can give a simple answer – I will not dismiss General Prosecutor Augustin Lazar. The general prosecutor is doing a good job, I am satisfied with his activity. The assessment made by the justice minister does not satisfy legal rigours,” said Iohannis.

Romanian Justice Minister Tudorel Toader announced on October 24 that he will launch the procedure to dismiss General Prosecutor Augustin Lazar from office, after criticizing his activity in a 20-point assessment.

The minister’s reasons for launching the request varied from procedural problems in Lazar’s appointment to the office in 2016, to the fact that he criticized the recent formation of a section to investigate magistrates.

In the announcement, Toader stated that upon documenting the prosecutor’s nomination for the office in 2016, he found that it a lacked a mandatory review on his recent activity, and that when he requested a copy from the country’s top judicial watchdog, CSM, it was dated one year after the decree which appointed Lazar as general prosecutor.

The minister also said that Lazar expressed critical opinions to the judicial reform pushed by ruling PSD-ALDE coalition, even after they were approved by the Constitutional Court, offering an example to the recently-established section to investigate judicial offences.

A similar request he made in the case of former chief anticorruption prosecutor Laura Codruta Kovesi earlier this year ended with the Constitutional Court forcing President Klaus Iohannis to heed Toaderrecommendation, despite initially refusing to do so. The decision also gave the justice minister the sole competency to decide on the reasoning of dismissing chief prosecutors, whereas the president can only issue a refusal if it does not respect legal provisions.

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