The testimony of a DNA prosecutor about how “DNA came to non-combat”: “We are no longer allowed to work with the most competent police body in the MAI” / An MAI officer confirms

A DNA prosecutor offers the public, in a discussion with HotNews, a concrete example of how, he claims, the investigative force of the elite structure of the Prosecutor's Office in Romania was premeditatedly weakened. “All the things reported in the Recorder investigation we knew, now others also know. I will also describe another method,” said the DNA prosecutor, who accepted the dialogue under the condition of protecting his identity, considering his status as an active magistrate.

• Prosecutors investigate cases not alone, but by coordinating judicial police officers.
• “For over a decade, with tens of millions of euros and with training supported by EU countries, investigative police structures have been built in the MAI that cooperated with the DNA. Suddenly, the relationship was interrupted, by the decision of the ÎCCJ”, an MAI officer explained to HotNews, complementing what the DNA prosecutor said.
• If you cut the cooperation with the elite force of the Romanian police and look for policemen at IPJs, then automatically the research force of the DNA decreases, and this was done intentionally, at a high level and coordinated, the prosecutor from the DNA also states.

“Both prosecutors and judges are people and they have the right, like every citizen, to free expression. The reporting of problems within a system must be defended. All those who have the courage to say and preach certain things must not be made targets. Let the issues they report be checked”, says the prosecutor who has been working in the judiciary for over 20 years, in the discussion with HotNews.

What he says happened “in the year of Mr. Voineag's appointment”

The Captured Justice investigation of the Recorder journalists, he claims, pointed out some “systemic problems” that DNA prosecutors knew about and accepted for years. They accepted them out of fear, admit it.

The prosecutor confirms what another DNA prosecutor said in the documentary, also under the condition of confidentiality: that as early as 2023 they were told to communicate measures from the files to management.

“I remember that in the year of the appointment of Mr. Voineag to the leadership of DNA, after a few months I think, we all received that order regarding the communication of technical surveillance measures from the files, we were somehow shocked because until then no one had requested such a thing. When I received it, I perceived it on the principle that the order is not to be discussed, although we all had question marks”, confesses the prosecutor.

The magistrate admits that he was afraid. Why? Of professional consequences. Of a possible complaint to the Judicial Inspection of the CSM.

He says that the decrease in DNA capacity was premeditated

The DNA prosecutor states that under the mandate of the current management, “there were many things that were not right and that were not carried out in accordance with professional ethics”.

Asked to give an example, he said that they felt abandoned in the context of legislative changes that led to the closing of cases in courts in waves.

The DNA prosecutor also says that the new regulations regarding the prescription or exclusion of DGA police officers from handling corruption cases have seriously affected the activity of DNA's territorial services.

What about the DGA cops?

According to the legislation, the prosecutor does not work alone. He teams up with judicial police officers, whom he coordinates.

The DNA does not have enough judicial police officers, and at that time it used an elite professional body of the MAI, where police officers from the General Anticorruption Directorate, as well as other structures from the MAI, enter.

On the other hand, the prosecutor admits that he is not satisfied with his work.

“You know what upsets me the most? That my activity is not better, that I don't have police officers and especially that we no longer have the DGA police officers and no one says anything about this job anymore. I need resources to do my job. I don't want to sit at work for nothing!”, says the prosecutor.

The testimony of an MAI officer

According to a HotNews source from the MAI, those from the Ministry of the Interior are also dissatisfied. “There have been investments for over a decade, including with European funds. We sent people for specialization. We were helped by those from the EU or ministries from European countries, on bilateral relations,” explained an MAI officer.

“A lot of work has been done in the human training area of ​​the MAI, at the DGA and the Directorate of Special Operations. And now we don't use them in very important cases,” claims the officer.

“You can't buy a good policeman on the market”

One of the structures to which the policeman refers, the Special Operations Directorate (DOS), is the most advanced technical structure that can be used in the criminal area of ​​the MAI and has collaborated, in the past, with the DNA. DOS can locate phones, it can hack, it has cutting edge technology.

“That files are not made with the SRI, I agree, but how do you eliminate a potential police investigator from the criminal investigation?”, said the man from the MAI, in the discussion with HotNews.

He says that beyond the technology, its the problem of educated and experienced people that you have no way of replicating. “They were removed from cooperation with the DNA. How do you make other policemen overnight? You can't buy a good policeman on the market.”

The same thing, in other words, says the DNA prosecutor: “It took a long time for the judicial police officers used by us from the DGA to specialize in corruption cases. Now we no longer work together.” Time cannot be bought, say the MAI officer and the DNA prosecutor.

DNA prosecutor: “The DGA was put on hold and no one from the prosecutor's office said anything”

Since June, when the High Court of Cassation and Justice decided that the DGA policemen have exclusive jurisdiction only in files with MAI workers, not only the DNA but also the Prosecutor's Offices attached to the courts have suffered.

For example, in the case of the former president of CJ Vaslui, Dumitru Buzatu, accused of having received a bag with 1.25 million lei from a businessman, DNA used DGA police officers during the investigation.

The DNA prosecutor confirms: “The DGA has a very well-developed apparatus, both in terms of technical surveillance measures and human resources, a line of investigators specialized in corruption. The DGA was brought to a dead end and no one from the prosecutor's office management said anything. So much money was put into this institution and we are putting it to a dead end? We had discussions among our colleagues, we sent it to Bucharest, and from there the answer was we'll see, we analyze more“.

“Yes, they reinvented the law”

The DNA prosecutor claims that “unfortunately, our communication with the current leadership of the DNA was deficient. I am convinced that the decision given by the High Court, regarding the exclusion of DGA police officers from corruption files that do not target MAI workers, was not given by chance, given that five years ago it gave a diametrically opposite decision on the exact same case. They reinvented the law, as the vice-president of the CSM rightly said”, says the DNA prosecutor.

The magistrate states that in recent years the lack of communication between the territorial structures and the DNA leadership has been acutely felt.

“I have never experienced sadder times as a prosecutor and I have been working in the system for 20 years”

“I don't accuse anyone of occult things, but the closed attitude, the lack of communication, what can you think of? I have never experienced sadder times as a prosecutor and I have been working in the system for 20 years,” says the DNA magistrate.

“We don't have effective public communication. Unity has been lost somewhere. I don't know what happened, but these are sad times. And it got here, probably, because people are afraid. We knew all the things reported in the Recorder documentary. Now others know them too. It was a release for us. They were some taboo subjects in the conditions where justice should not be a taboo subject”, the prosecutor believes.

In his opinion, the calling card of a magistrate is the professionalism with which he investigates cases. The thousands of closed cases, based on the statute of limitations, are failures for prosecutors.

How it came to noncombat

Another big problem, says the prosecutor, is the procedure of the preliminary chamber, which currently represents nothing more than a continuous procrastination of the trials.

But this is a condition that forces you to do your job better, to compile the files more responsibly, I told the prosecutor. Why does it bother you?

“We understand, but there are files that sit for years in the procedure of the preliminary chamber, which is unacceptable. Naturally, such cases become time-barred.”

The prosecutor says that an additional filter in the court should also presuppose a greater capacity at the Prosecutor's Office.

“We are looking for police officers through IPJs, who anyway have a lot of tasks, and who have double subordination and communicate everything to the bosses. We know how appointments are at IPJs. The risk of compromising the files, you realize, is high”, adds the magistrate. He says the feel is of a “noncombat DNA”.

Asked what the DNA needs, the magistrate gave a short answer: “Laws that stop putting a brake on justice and reorganization”.