Two weeks after entering office, Prosecutor General, Alexandr Stoianoglo should resign, even if this is against his will.

At the inauguration, Stoianoglo declared that he knows what he has to do to change the situation. However, two weeks later he made errors and failures. And if he can’t get out of the situation with dignity, and if he respects himself, he is to announce his prompt resignation. 

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Some of his decisions are harshly criticized in the society, and the new Prosecutor General has not yet come with any reply or with any denial. He could’ve said something about the tricky manner in which he suspended the activity of the head of the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office, but he avoided any discussion on this subject. 

His deputies respond to the requests of the press, but they have nothing to say about the fate of the cases initiated by the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office, especially about the case that could clarify the way Russian funds the Socialist Party. 

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Immediately after the investiture, the Prosecutor General undertook unexpected checks at the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office which according to its status is an independent structure.

Perhaps all this would have passed unnoticed if, in the last few days, Stoianoglo wouldn’t have shown utter contempt, and disrespect, and lack of empathy in the billion theft investigation. 

First, he publicly stated that the second Kroll Report didn’t contain the names of the ones who benefitted from the stolen money, which is totally wrong. 

The statement annoyed Alexandr Slusari, the former head of the Parliamentary Commission that investigated the bank fraud. Slusari announced that, if Stoianoglo won’t make the requested information public, he will release the data about the beneficiaries from the Kroll Report 2, even at the risk of having a criminal case in his name for disclosure of secret information. 

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The following day, names appeared in the press, many of which are known, about which the free press has written, but probably Stoianoglo reads neither reports nor newspapers.

The Prosecutor General had to present the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office report on the investigation of the billion theft at the Parliamentary Security Commission, on December 11. 

However, instead of the Prosecutor General one of his deputy prosecutors, Ruslan Popov came explaining that neither Stoianoglo nor Popov will present the report. Because the General Prosecutor’s Office is questioning the correctness and accuracy of the facts presented by those from Anticorruption (Viorel Morari, recently suspended from office for a period of one month). 

Ruslan Popov requested time for his boss to read and analyze the report on the bank fraud investigation of bank fraud made by the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office.

Six years after the robbery in the banking system was committed, the newly appointed Prosecutor General hinted that Moldova’s state has nothing to do with investigating this robbery. 

Although Stoianoglo promised at the interview, while in the contest for the Prosecutor General position, to investigate the bank fraud, during the two weeks of his activity in this position he showed no interest in the stolen billion case, and when asked to present the report, he said he had no time to read it. 

His deputy, present at the Parliamentary Commission, hinted that the Kroll investigations would be superficial, not complex and that they could not be used by prosecutors to document the fraud. Could it be that after the questionable results of the contest, Stoianoglo took the office to cover up the investigation from the bank fraud case?

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Aneta Grosu, aneta@zdg.md