PG Scutea: ECHR decision reaffirms right of prosecutors to freely say their opinion

Prosecutor General Gabriela Scutea says ECHR decision in Laura Codruta Kovesi's case reaffirms the right of prosecutors to freely voice their opinion and creates the prerequisites for rethinking procedures on their removal from management positions, by strengthening the role of the Superior Council of Magistracy.

Scutea said in a press release on Tuesday that the ECHR decision confirms the previous standpoint of the Public Ministry, in the sense that the ad-hoc dismissal procedure initiated against prosecutors in management positions contradicts the judicial organisation laws and also, through the manner in which it unfolds, the independence and the fundamental guarantees, especially the right to defend oneself.

Moreover, said Gabriela Scutea, the ECHR decision reaffirms the prosecutors' right to freely voice their opinions in the context of the public debates that must define the process of adoption or modification of the normative framework that regulates the status, in a rule of law state, as well as the process of modification of the criminal law.

In the chief prosecutor's opinion, such public standpoints cannot, by any means, become a pretext for the initiation of such procedures that are only meant to remove a prosecutor from office.

On the other hand, Scutea believes that the ECHR decision in Kovesi's case creates the prerequisites for rethinking the procedures under which the prosecutors in management offices are being dismissed.

According to the general prosecutors, the assumption and exercise in good faith and according to the principle of loyalty and the Constitution of the prerogatives granted by law must define the public climate, and the other state powers must act to defend justice independence.

Laura Codruta Kovesi on Tuesday won at the ECHR the trail by which she challenged the decision regarding her removal from office as chief prosecutor of the National Anti-corruption Directorate (DNA).

According to the ECHR, Romania violated the rights of the DNA head, by dismissing her before the end of her term.