Wednesday, November 22, 2023, the National Institute of Justice hosted the discussions panel entitled „Efficient implementation of judicial agreements of public interest: the experience of the National Financial Prosecutor's Office in France”. The meeting was attended by foreign experts, including the National Financial Prosecutor's Office of France, heads of justice sector institutions, judges, prosecutors, NIJ trainees, lawyers and representatives of the Ministry of Finance.
„Professional judicial training of the legal system actors is the prerogative of the National Institute of Justice that is why NIJ has an enormous responsibility in delivering high-quality training, including for the effective implementation of legislative amendments. It is essential that the training process reflects changes and developments in the legal field, thus providing our beneficiaries with the knowledge and necessary skills for applying in their professional work in a correctly way the new laws”, emphasized in the opening, Ecaterina Popa, ad interim Director of the National Institute of Justice.
Claudine Justafre, expert in the field of criminal asset recovery, seconded by the Government of the French Republic within the Presidency of the Republic of Moldova, mentioned the following: „Among the numerous reforms initiated by the Government of the Republic of Moldova, we must welcome alignment with international best practices in the field of transactional justice: recent introduction of the „public interest judicial agreement” in the Criminal Procedure Code, based on the French model, will allow in the future a faster and more efficient resolution of corruption cases involving legal entities, in the interests of the state and Moldovan citizens”.
During the discussion panel, Head of Anticorruption Prosecution Office, Veronica Dragalin, presented the practice of resolution agreements in the United States of America and spoke about the importance of using such agreements in our country.
PNF representatives from France – Jean-Francois Bohnert, Chief Prosecutor, and Phillippe Jaegle, Deputy Prosecutor, reported the powers of the National Prosecutor's Office, providing examples of good practice in the areas of application of the Judicial Convention of Public Interest. They also developed topics on the criteria for using judicial agreements of public interest, the missions of the prosecutor and the judge in judicial agreements of public interest, the advantages of transactional justice both for the prosecution, and, for society, etc.
The discussion panel was organized by the National Institute of Justice in partnership with the Embassy of the French Republic in the Republic of Moldova, at the initiative of the French expert in asset recovery, delegated by the French Government to the Presidency of the Republic of Moldova, in the context of recent legislative changes that provide for the simplification of procedures for the examination of criminal cases in order to avoid delaying the examination of criminal cases, the expiry of the limitation period or the restitution of the damage caused and faster recovery of the damage caused by the offences will be ensured.
Note: The head of the National Financial Prosecutor's Office of France, Mr. Jean-Francois Bohnert, is visiting Chisinau on November 21-22 this year.
The PNF has national jurisdiction in France over complex and serious cases of economic and financial crimes (corruption, money laundering, aggravated tax fraud, financial market and competition offences). In the Republic of Moldova, it corresponds to the mandate of the Anticorruption Prosecutor's Office and, in part, of the PCCOCS. PNF was created in 2013, following a political-financial scandal involving the minister responsible for the budget, to fight all forms of fraud and attacks on integrity.
Since 2014, the PNF has managed to transfer 11,861 billion euros to the French Public Treasury (fines, confiscations, damages and interest for the State, tax controls) and, since 2017, tax controls, get 354 people convicted, including former President N. Sarkozy and former prime minister F. Fillon.
