Interim Justice Minister refuses to approve criminal investigation against former and in office ministers

Vineri, 18 ianuarie 2008, 15:02 English | Top News

Interim Justice Minister Teodor Melescanu refused on Friday to launch the criminal investigation against former and in office ministers, investigated by the National Anti-Graft Prosecution Office (DNA). Melescanu should have signed the files recently approved by president Traian Basescu and have it sent to the DNA, but claimed that the documentation received from the presidency is incomplete. It is the first time in the already controversial Romanian Justice when a minister refuses to follow procedure. even more, the Justice Minister doesn't have the right to look into the files.

In a press release, the interim Justice Minister mentions that the verification made within the ministry showed that the documentation received from the presidency is incomplete, consisting only in the report put up by case prosecutors and chief prosecutors, without the files themselves. "Under these circumstances, the Justice Minister was not able to make the files available under the conditions of the law".

Under the existing laws, the president does not involve in preliminary investigations, nor does he enable institutions other than the Justice to conduct investigations, therefore he is not forced to have all the documents in a file. Another article that may have caused Melescanu's response - that the President must send the documents to the Prime Minister and the Justice Minister - was declared as anti-Constitutional and can not be invoked. In other words, the president only has to inform the Justice minister on the positive resolution on the opening of a criminal pursuit.

Sources in the prosecution office say that one of the reasons why some documents never make it on the minister's desk is that suspicions exist on papers being sent to the investigated persons or to the media.