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The National Anti-Corruption Directorate (DNA) on Tuesday issued a report asking the attorney general to decide whether or not he should notify on his own motion about the offence of compromising the interests of justice in the case of a leak from an investigation made public by the Ministry for Relations with Parliament.
According to a DNA statement, "in a press release of August 1, 2017, the Ministry for Relations with Parliament inserted unpublished data from a criminal investigation that is likely to affect its proper conduct." According to the same source, the communication released by the Ministry for Relations with Parliament provides information on the object of the search, the capacity of the persons heard and the nature of evidence.
"Information from the investigation has been leaked by the governmental institution despite the fact that the National Anti-Corruption Directorate - the competent prosecutorial authority for the investigation issued a press statement indicating that the state of the current investigation requires strict limits to public communication (...) It should be noted that the nature of information regarding procedural actions carried out by criminal investigating bodies, namely searches, hearings, etc., is strictly regulated and such information may not be the object of public communication except under certain circumstances, strictly determined by the stage of the investigation and determined solely by the criminal prosecution body," said DNA.
Searches conducted by prosecutors and judicial police officers with the Bucharest office of the National Anti-Corruption Directorate (DNA) of Bucharest in four offices at the Ministry for Relations with Parliament, headquartered in Victoria Palace, targeted competitions for the appointment of first counsellor and second counsellor, organised by the ministry on the same day, the Ministry for Relations with Parliament reported on Tuesday in a press statement. "On Monday, July 31, prosecutors and judicial police officers with the with the Bucharest office of the National Anti-Corruption Directorate conducted searches under warrants issued by the Criminal Section of the Supreme Court of Justice at four offices of the Ministry of Relations with Parliament, which has its headquarters at Victoria Palace," the Ministry of Relations with Parliament said in a press statement.
The ministry said "the search took place between 15:00hrs and 19:00hrs and targeted the competitions for the appointment of first counsellor and second counsellor organised by the ministry on the same day." "People from the minister's office and the competition board were heard, photos and videos were taken during the search," the ministry said.
Representatives of the ministry express their wish that "the investigation will take place as soon as possible and find out the truth so that we know if criminal offenses were committed." "We express our confidence in the fairness of the actions undertaken by the state authorities, as well as in the competence and fairness of the Romanian justice system," the ministry added. The National Anti-Corruption Directorate says the searches on Monday at the Government headquarters regarded suspicions of crime related to corruption committed in July 2017. "Following the obtainment of the legal authorisation from the relevant court, on July 31, 2017, between 15:00hrs and 19:00hrs, searches were carried out in five locations at the headquarters of a public institution in Bucharest, in a criminal case on the docks of the Anti-Corruption Department regarding suspicions of crimes related to corruption committed in July 2017," DNA said in a press statement.
