Members of the Superior Council of Prosecutors (CSP) took note on Thursday, November 17, of the request submitted to the Presidency by former Prosecutor General Eduard Harunjen, which refers to the annulment of the 2019 decree accepting his resignation as Prosecutor General of Moldova.

“The CSP resolves: to take note of the submission of the request on the annulment of the decree of 11 July 2019 with reference to the dismissal from office of Mr. Eduard Harunjen (…),” said CSP Chair Angela Motuzoc.

On 10 November, Eduard Harunjen returned to public attention after more than three years and announced at a press conference that he had asked the country’s President Maia Sandu to annul the 2019 decree accepting his resignation as Prosecutor General of Moldova. Harunjen says he is asking for the annulment of this decree because it “was vitiated by several legal and factual circumstances.”

Subsequently, the Prosecutor General’s Office (PG) confirmed that Eduard Harunjen’s application for reinstatement was received by the institution on November 10, 2022, a reply from the institution to ZdG said. However, the prosecutor’s office avoided commenting on the former prosecutor general’s requests.

“The Prosecutor General’s Office confirms that on 10 November 2022 the address of Eduard Harunjen was received by the institution, the content of which was made public by its author. The allegations made by the applicant are to be examined within the limits of the powers assigned by law to the Prosecutor General’s Office. At the present stage, as the address is in the process of being examined, the Office of the Prosecutor General refrains from any comment on the subject matter raised by the petitioner. At the same time, we reiterate that the Prosecutor’s Office will continue to guide its work in accordance with the principles of legality, impartiality and independence”, the statement of the Prosecutor General’s Office, sent to ZdG, reads.

Eduard Harunjen, the former Prosecutor General of Moldova from 2016-2019, said that he should be reinstated as Prosecutor General from November 10 and stated that “the continued occupation of the position of acting Prosecutor General by Mr. Ion Munteanu becomes unfounded and illegal, and any administrative act, signed by him, is liable to absolute nullity.”

“On 10 November this year, I addressed a request to Mr. Ion Munteanu informing him about the preliminary request I submitted to the Presidency of the Republic of Moldova regarding the suspension and annulment of the Decree of the President of the Republic of Moldova No. 1208 of 11 July 2019 on the dismissal of the undersigned from the position of Prosecutor General. In such circumstances, according to the provisions of Article 171 para. (5) of the Administrative Code, the legal effects of the Decree are suspended until the final settlement of the case, i.e. with the reinstatement of the undersigned as Prosecutor General on 10 November 2022. Under these circumstances, the continued occupation of the position of acting Prosecutor General by Mr. Ion Munteanu becomes unfounded and illegal, and any administrative act signed by him is liable to absolute nullity”, says Eduard Harunjen.

The message on behalf of Eduard Harunjen was sent from the same email address from which, in July 2019, he announced his resignation as Prosecutor General. He wrote then that “in order to curb the legal risks caused by Tuesday’s obviously illegal and unconstitutional decision of the Parliament, but also to protect the image of the Prosecutor General’s Office and the work of the entire prosecutorial corps, I announce my resignation pursuant to letter a) paragraph 1) article 58 of Law No. 3 of 25 February 2016 on the Prosecutor General’s Office”.