The debate over where the anti-corruption fight ends and where the violation of human rights begins has re-ignited in Romania.
For Romanian media and civil society, which advocate morality in the public space and the severe punishment of a political class blamed for robbing the country for almost three decades, the fight against corruption is crucial, while magistrates are seen as the knights of justice. For the tens of top-level politicians, from former prime ministers and ministers to MPs and mayors, both on the right and left of the political spectrum, from the government and the opposition, from Bucharest and the provinces, who have found themselves behind bars or at least in the defendants' box, today's Romania is a police state or a republic of prosecutors.
The debate over where the fight against corruption ends and where the violation of human rights begins has been going on for a few years and is periodically re-ignited whenever one of the two sides gets new ammunition.
The most recent such debate was sparked over the archive of the former secret service of the justice ministry. Known as the Independent Service for Protection and Anticorruption, it was established in the early 1990s, soon after the fall of communism, and existed until 2006, when it was dismantled amid accusations of abuse. In the meantime, however, it is believed to have collected compromising information about magistrates. Some of the files are said to have been stolen or copied and now used to blackmail prosecutors and magistrates into opening certain investigations and passing certain sentences. The plot has thickened after accusations that many of these files were acquired straight from the Securitate, the former political police of the communist regime.
On Wednesday, justice minister Tudorel Toader said that, in order to put an end to speculations, the infamous archive would be declassified as soon as possible. He pointed out, however, that his ministry and the government can only declassify files that fall within their prerogatives, while possible state secrets stored in the archive have a different regimen. Prime minister Sorin Grindeanu also weighed in, saying it is important to remove any doubts concerning the judiciary and that he is in favour of declassifying the archives in keeping with the law. The move is supported by the magistrates' associations and by president Klaus Iohannis, who added, however, that it would be interesting to find out how this subject has resurfaced again more than ten years after the dismantling of the Independent Service for Protection and Anticorruption.
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