Four of the five members of the selection panel for the new head of the Prosecutor’s Office for Combating Organised Crime and Special Cases (PCCOCS) have resigned. They are Tudor Osoianu, proposed by the Ministry of Justice, and Ion Guceac, Boris Poiată and Roman Eremciuc, proposed by the Superior Council of Prosecutors (CSP).

According to ZdG sources, the fifth member, Iulian Groza, proposed by the President of the Republic of Moldova, did not come to the meeting of the Commission to select the new head of the PCCOCS, scheduled for 1 February 2023.

On 31 January 2023, the CSP rejected the request of Justice Minister Sergiu Litvinenco to cancel the competition for the post of head of the PCCOCS.

The Superior Council of Prosecutors convened for an extraordinary meeting on Tuesday 31 January after several failures to hold the meeting. The supplementary agenda included the request of Minister Sergiu Litvinenco to cancel the competition initiated by the CSP on 10 October to select the candidate for the position of chief prosecutor of the PCCOCS. The request was examined by CSP members at the beginning of the meeting, on the minister’s proposal, because it would have “encompassed” the rest of the requests on the agenda.

The agenda included four items, including: the request submitted by Eduard Bulat for the suspension and cancellation of the competition for the selection of the candidate for the position of Chief Prosecutor of the PCCOCS, the request submitted by Eugeniu Rurac for the cancellation of the CSP decision on the establishment of the Commission for the selection of the candidate for the position of Chief Prosecutor of the PCCOCS and the complaint of Iulian Groza, member of the Special Commission for the pre-selection of candidates for the position of Chief Prosecutor of the PCCOCS.

The members of the CSP also rejected the preliminary requests submitted by Eduard Bulat and Eugeniu Rurac for the suspension and annulment of the competition, as well as the annulment of the decision of the CSP to set up the Commission for the selection of the candidate, as inadmissible. According to Commission President Angela Motuzoc, the two must go to court.

Three candidates applied for the competition for the selection of the Chief Prosecutor of the PCCOCS, all of whom were admitted to the interview stage:

• Andrei Mațco;
• Eugen Rurac;
• Sergiu Russu;