Deputy Attorney General and Minister for Justice, Justice Srem-Sai, has dismissed suggestions of tension between the Attorney-General’s Department and the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP), insisting that the government will grant prosecution authorisation whenever it is formally requested.
Speaking in an interview on Joy FM on Friday, April 17, he said the issue at the centre of the current discussions is not a refusal to cooperate, but a matter of institutional procedure and the OSP’s position on independence.
“Why not? Why won’t we grant them the authorisation if they apply for it? We have been liaising with the Office of the Special Prosecutor since we came to office,” he said.
Srem-Sai added that engagement between both institutions has been ongoing, stressing that cooperation has not broken down.
“There are so many things that we have done, some of which I cannot account for. So there’s no issue about liaising or not liaising. Why won’t we? That’s the question I am asking,” he stated.
He, however, noted that the OSP has not been seeking such authorisation, arguing that the office maintains it does not require approval due to its independence.
“OSP is not interested in coming for the authorisation. That is because the OSP says that it is independent and doesn’t require the authorization. That is the issue at the center of it,” he explained.
According to him, the debate should not be simplified into a question of whether authorisation is being granted or withheld, but rather understood within the broader context of the Special Prosecutor’s constitutional independence.
“The whole argument is the independence of the Special Prosecutor, which is at the core of this issue. So if you simplify the matter and you say that it’s just about giving authorization and not giving it, then you probably have completely left the issue aside and you’re addressing a completely different issue,” he added.
His comments come in the wake of a High Court ruling on Wednesday, April 15, 2026, which ordered the Attorney-General’s Department to take over all criminal prosecutions currently being handled by the OSP, pending formal authorisation from the Attorney-General’s office.
The ruling effectively shifts ongoing prosecutorial responsibility to the Attorney-General’s Department on an interim basis. It also means the OSP can no longer continue those cases in court in their current form.
The court further declared the existing OSP prosecutions “null and void,” raising the possibility that the cases may need to be refiled or restarted under the Attorney-General’s authority, depending on how the state proceeds.
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