Justice takes time, and in the process of gathering evidence all citizens’ rights must be respected. This is what the head of the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office, Veronica Dragalin, said when she was asked when there will be finality on the high-profile cases in the Republic of Moldova. The chief anti-corruption prosecutor said that she understands society’s desire to see those who looted the state punished, but trust in the judiciary is not built through convictions on a conveyor belt, but through compliance with all legal procedures, notes ipn.md.
The head of the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office stated that in order for society to regain its trust in the institution of the prosecutor’s office, the prosecutors must respect all the stages of the accumulation of evidence, and in the case of high-profile cases, and this process is a long one.
“We all get highly affected when it comes to the billion stolen from banks in Moldova. It’s the same for the case of the Laundromat, which went through the Moldovan courts and gave us a very bad reputation in Europe and the whole world. We all want these schemes to be dismantled, the guilty to be held accountable, and the stolen money – recovered. However, if the above-mentioned are the only positive results that count, I think we will not achieve them soon. We also want to reach finality in large, high-profile files, but it is very important to also look at the course of this long road on which there are other intermediate results, which shows that we moving in the right direction,” Veronica Dragalin said.
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Being asked about the evolution of the file regarding the financing of the Şor Political Party, Veronica Dragalin said that after the accumulation of all the evidence, the file will be sent to court and then the society will have access to the information.
“If overnight we had convictions left and right, that would mean to me that we don’t actually live in a state of law. So justice needs time because rights have to be respected. I understand that citizens have emotions, they want to see results. They want to see people go to jail and money confiscated. I understand why citizens want that. We have, however, to follow the law. We can’t just take people from their homes and put them in prison. We must respect the process of accumulating evidence in a fair and responsible way and that is what is happening at the moment”, concluded Dragalin.
According to the Chief Anticorruption Prosecutor, in 2022, out of the total number of cases sent to court, 75% of the cases will result in convictions, and in 25% of the cases the persons will be acquitted.