Felix Banila: Prosecutor must not pose in absolute master of criminal prosecution

Felix Banila, the Justice Ministry's proposal for the head of Terrorism and Organised Crime Investigation Directorate (DIICOT), affirmed on Tuesday, in the front of the Prosecutors' Section of the Supreme Council of Magistrates (CSM), that the DIICOT's activity is one of teamwork, highlighting that the prosecutor must not pose as the absolute master of criminal prosecution. 

"I also have in mind that the activity of DIICOT is mainly a teamwork activity, and team needs to be understood in the fullest sense of the word and on principles (..) of equality. It is true that the prosecutor is the head of the criminal prosecution, we all know it, but he must not pose as the absolute master of criminal prosecution, but needs to be a true leader and you know what I mean by this concept of leader. That is why he/she needs to understand what the other members of the team are facing, and to offer the support they need," Banila told the Prosecutors' Section of CSM. 

Felix Banila is being interviewed on Tuesday, at CSM, for the position of chief-prosecutor of the Direction of Investigation of Infractions of Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT). 

Combating terrorism and drug trafficking is amongst the priorities mentioned by Felix Banila, according to the managerial project posted on CSM website. 

Felix Banila considers that DIICOT's medium and long term objectives need to harmonize with what the Co-operation and Verification Mechanism (CVM) defined as being "an efficient justice act, in compliance with high standards of ethics and professionalism." In consequence, he intends to structure the lines of action in strategic objectives (meant to reform and improve the operational capacity and action of DIICOT through their correlation with the objectives established in the Justice reform strategy), operational objectives (which derive from the Organisation and Functioning Regulations) and specific objectives (which derive from the immediate activities which need to be carried out at the level of DIICOT). 

Amongst the strategic objectives are combating organized crime and terrorism, maintaining the professional and moral integrity of prosecutors and support personnel, raising the level of the recovery of products which come from offenses, but also preventing crimes in the areas of competence.