The Section for the Investigation of the magistrates is being dismantled
Romania gets rid of a structure believed to be aimed at intimidating its magistrates
Bogdan Matei, 15.02.2022, 14:00
The story of one of the most controversial
structures in the Romanian judiciary is coming to an end these days. The
government in Bucharest on Monday endorsed a draft law on dismantling the
special Section for the Investigation of the Judiciary, known in Romania as
SIIJ. The head of the coalition government, Liberal Nicolae Ciucă, has recalled
that this is an objective Romania has also assumed within the Cooperation and
Verification Mechanism (CVM) through which Brussels has been monitoring the
rule of law in Romania ever since the country’s entry into the European Union
in 2007.
Under the new amendments, other structures
have been authorized to take over the SIIJ files and their resolutions are to
be made public within 60 days since the law has come into effect, by the
Prosecutor’s Office with the High Court of Cassation and Justice and the other
the competent offices, which are carrying on work on the aforementioned files.
High-ranking prosecutors and justices
accused of various offences are to be investigated by the Prosecutor’s Office
with the High Court of Cassation and Justice whereas the other prosecutors and
judges by prosecutor’s offices of other courts.
The jobs in the organizational chart of
the SIIJ will remain in the organizational chart of the Prosecutor’s Office
with the High Court of Cassation and Justice, part of the Penal and Crime Investigation
Department. Starting with the date of the SIIJ dismantling, its prosecutors,
including those in higher positions, will be returning to the prosecutor’s
offices they belonged to. The aforementioned draft will be submitted for
Parliament debates and approval.
The largest part of the press in
Bucharest, as well as legal experts, have constantly denounced the SIIJ as a
means of putting pressure on the magistrates and hindering Romania’s anti-graft
actions.
The initiator of this project was believed
to be the former Social Democratic strongman Liviu Dragnea who had dominated
Romania’s political life for a couple of years before being arrested on corruption
charges in 2019.
The present head of European Public
Prosecutor’s Office, EPPO, Laura Codruta Kovesi, who had previously headed
Romania’s Anti-Corruption Directorate with unmatched effectiveness, confessed
shortly before her dismissal by president Klaus Iohannis in June 2018,
following a Constitutional Court ruling, that in those years, the biggest
challenge for the Romanian judiciary was keeping its judges and prosecutors
independent.
There have been repeated tries at
amending the anti-corruption legislation in order to limit the legislative
instruments used by anti-corruption prosecutors or attempts at decriminalizing
some actions. There were situations in which requests for lifting the immunity
of corrupt politicians had been turned down, Kovesi went on to say.
(bill)
