Bucharest Prosecutor’s Office to Partially Suspend Activity until March 8

The Bucharest Prosecutor’s Office decided in its General Assembly meeting on Wednesday to suspend two hours per day of its activity until March 8 and all of its public related-work, in protest against the recent Government judicial decree.

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The assembly decided to suspend all of its non-urgent activity between 8 and 10 every day until March 8.

The institution also announced that it supported the request made by the country’s General Prosecutor’s Office for Ombudsman Victor Ciorbea to challenge the decree at the Constitutional Court.

Bucharest prosecutors join several judicial institutions throughout the country which have suspended their activity in protest against the decree, including top anti-terrorism agency DIICOT.

The protests have continued despite the fact that Romanian Justice Minister Tudorel Toader announced on Monday that he agreed to repeal some of the decree’s most controversial provisions, but also rejected the idea of a full repeal.

The bill contains several changes to the contest for admission into the National Institute of Magistracy (INM) and the attributions of the Supreme Court’s Section for Investigating Judicial Offences (SIIJ) chief-prosecutor, and also blocks delegations into chief prosecutor roles.

Before the partial repeal announced by Toader, the act also extended the eligibility criteria for top prosecutor offices to judges who have previously worked as prosecutors, instead of only prosecutors who are active at the time of the nomination.

Additionally, it amended the procedure for appointing top prosecutors, as candidacies for such offices were set to be reviewed by the plenary of the country’s top judicial watchdog, the Superior Council of the Magistracy (CSM), instead of the institution’s Prosecutors’ Section, as is currently the case.

The act was criticized by Romania’s main prosecutors’ offices, but also by top judicial watchdog CSM’s Prosecutors’ Section and by National Union of Romanian Judges. The institutions accused that its provisions might block the agencies’ activities and infringes on the principle of separating the careers of judges and prosecutors.

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