Anticorruption Prosecutor's Office initiated criminal process in case of providing incomplete information regarding CSM member Iulian Muntean

Chisinau, 26 Sep. /MOLDPRES/- The Anticorruption Prosecutor's Office (PA) today initiated a criminal case on the alleged illegal actions of some employees of the National Anticorruption Center (CNA), responsible for analyzing and providing information to the Pre-vetting Commission regarding the candidate for the position of member of of the Superior Council of Magistracy (CSM) Iulian Muntean.

The institution said that on December 14, 2018, the head of the Operational Analysis Section of the Analytical Directorate, upon questioning on October 29, 2018 by the criminal investigation body of the CNA, in the criminal case "ASEM", carried out the operational analysis regarding three intermediaries, as well as regarding the students and professors suspected, accused in acts of corruption, including regarding professor Iulian Muntean, who at that time had the procedural status of being accused.

Later, on December 15, 2018, through the accompanying letter signed by the Head of the General Analytical Directorate of the CNA, the operational analysis report was sent to the criminal investigation body of the CNA.

According to the statements of the CNA director, during the public hearings held yesterday in the Parliament's office, the verification of Iulian Munteanu took place by consulting the record register of operational analysis reports. Also according to the statements of the CNA director during the public hearing, at the request of the Pre-vetting Commission, the operational analysis was carried out regarding the candidate Iulian Munteanu.

"The suspicions that formed the basis of the initiation of the criminal process regarding the concealment of information about Iulian Muntean, consist in the fact that the CNA employee who in 2018 drew up the operational analysis report, including regarding Iulian Muntean, is a former employee of the secretariat of the Pre- vetting, and the head of the General Analytical Directorate of CNA, responsible for carrying out both operational analyzes - from 2018 and 2023, regarding Iulian Muntean, is the same person", a press release of the Anticorruption Prosecutor's Office reads.

On this case, the CNA confirmed on September 21 to the Pre-Vetting Commission the accused status of the member of the CSM, Iulian Muntean, in the criminal case, including the fact that these data could not be identified previously due to the lack of recording of this order in the Forensic and Criminological Information Register of the Information Technology Service of the MAI.

For his part, Iulian Muntean came up with a reaction to the information related to his targeting in a criminal case, started on corruption by the Anticorruption Prosecutor's Office in 2018. Muntean states that this so-called case was manufactured at order of Plahotniuc regime, as a method of intimidation.

Iulian Muntean was appointed by Parliament as a member of the CSM on September 7.