Why doesn't the General Prosecutor's Office investigate the abuses committed in the management of the SIPA archive?
The institution headed by Augustin Lazăr ignores the referral received 6 months ago from the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry regarding the commission of particularly serious acts by former Justice Minister Monica Macovei.
The Independent Service for Protection and Anti-Corruption (SIPA) is the former secret service of the Ministry of Justice, which mainly dealt with the surveillance of magistrates.
On 21 November 2018, The Foundation For The Defense Of Citizens Against State Abuses (FACIAS) asked the Prosecutor's Office of the High Court of Cassation and Justice for public information on the measures ordered by prosecutors following the report drawn up by the Parliamentary Investigation Commission on the SIPA archive. (link to FACIAS request to PICCJ)
On 4 December 2018, in a reply to FACIAS, the General Prosecutor's Office reported that "no work has been identified concerning the matters referred to by you". (link to PICCJ reply)
According to a document in FACIAS's possession, the Chamber of Deputies sent the SIPA Commission Report to the Prosecutor General's Office on 5 July 2018. (link to CDEP secretariat reply)
Although, according to the Code of Criminal Procedure, the Prosecutor's Office was obliged to examine the referral received from the Parliamentary Investigation Committee, the prosecutors decided to simply ignore it.
The refusal of the General Prosecutor's Office to investigate the acts committed in the management of the SIPA archive is all the more serious as the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry has found the possible commission of criminal offences, some of them even endangering national security.
Thus, in Chapter IV - Proposals of the Final Report of the Parliamentary Inquiry Commission, it is stated that the report on the SIPA archive should be sent to the Prosecutor's Office of the High Court of Cassation and Justice "in order to fulfil its legal competences, and to establish:
- Whether the issuance of GD 127/2006 was likely to damage national security;
- Whether the action of Minister Monica Luisa Macovei in sealing the files in which the operational officers of the former D.G.P.A. stored working documents meets the constitutive elements of the offence provided for and punishable under Article 248 of the Criminal Code in force at the time the offence was committed;
- Whether the act of Mr Ovidiu Ioan Stoian of making classified documents available to the Minister, Luisa Monica Macovei, satisfies the constituent elements of the offence provided for and punishable under Article 252 of the Criminal Code in force at the time the offence was committed;
- Whether the act of Minister Monica Luisa Macovei, who, by abusing the prerogatives of her office and having an influence over her subordinates, caused them not to comply with the rules on the protection of classified information, satisfies the constituent elements of the offence provided for and punishable under Article 248 of the Criminal Code in force at the time the offence was committed;
- If, by the removal and removal from the archives of the former D.G.P.A., by the Minister Monica Luisa Macovei, of the register of documents for the year 2003-2004, the constituent elements of the offence provided for and punishable by Article 169 para. (2) of the Criminal Code in force at the time the offence was committed or whether the information contained in that register could have been used by the Minister to identify documents with which to blackmail the magistrates or other public persons to whom they were addressed". (link extracted from the Report of the Commission of Inquiry)
FACIAS calls on the General Prosecutor's Office to respect the law and to investigate the particularly serious facts referred to it by the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry on the SIPA archive. We also call on the Superior Council of the Magistracy and the Judicial Inspectorate to investigate the reasons why the General Prosecutor's Office refuses to follow up the referral sent 6 months ago by the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry.
FACIAS Press Office
9th of January 2019
