Top Judicial Watchdog Rules Against General Prosecutor In “High-Ranked Culprits” Dispute

Romania’s top judicial watchdog CSM ruled on Monday that the country’s general prosecutor, Augustin Lazar, broke the magistrate deontological code when he used the expression “high-ranked culprits” to describe lawmakers who proposed and supported recent judicial reforms.

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The CSM plenary admitted the appeal of the Judicial Inspection on the matter, made after its Prosecutors’ Section initially ruled in favor of Lazar on the subject.

Ahead of Monday’s plenary meeting, Lazar stated that the expression was referring to al culprits who are prosecuted by the country’s National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA), which by default investigates medium or high-level offences.

“If you look in the law, that’s what it states there: DNA was made to fight a specific type of criminality, corruption, but not at a reduced level, but at medium and high levels,” said the Romanian general prosecutor.

The high-ranked magistrate used the expression in December 2017, when speaking about politicians who were pushing for judicial bills which were seen as weakening for Romania’s judicial system.

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