CCR says it couldn't have violated right to equitable trial in Kovesi case,because it examined authorities' remit

The Constitutional Court of Romania (CCR) couldn't have violated the right to an equitable trial of an individual, namely of Laura Kovesi - because in the mentioned procedure another aspect has been examined, which targeted exclusively the remit of public authorities.

"Although the comments in the public space promoted the idea that the Constitutional Court violated the right to an equitable trial of Mrs. Kovesi and the invalidation of CCR Decision No.358/2018, it was established that the ECHR [the European Court of Human Rights] did not conduct a control regarding the legal reasoning and the solution ruled by the Constitutional Court. In fact, it did not even have the authority to do it," a CCR release sent to AGERPRES on Wednesday shows.

According to the quoted source, the ECHR ruling established the violation of the right to an equitable trial by reference to a distinct legal framework, a previous one and unrelated to the one analysed through the decision of the Constitutional Court. This legal framework refers to purely legal aspects, regulated by Law No. 303/2004 regarding the status of judges and prosecutors, and not to the one targeted by the Constitutional Court decsion, namely article no. 94 letter c and article 132 paragraph (1) of the Constitution.

"In the mentioned decision, the Constitutional Court also decided by a general binding nature what are the future constitutional relations between the Minister of Justice and the President of Romania, as well as the nature of their acts, in the removal from office procedure of the Chief Prosecutor of the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA), based on an prerogative provided by the Constitution. The decision thus ruled cannot be censored by any other authority," the quoted source shows.

CCR judges also say that Laura Kovesi hasn't been and could not have been a party in the procedure for resolving the legal conflict of a constitutional nature provided by article no. 146 letter e) of the Constitution, which concerns exclusively the relations between public authorities regarding the exercise of their constitutional remits, and in no way the judgment of some legal relations involving individuals.

Moreover, in all the legislations of the states which stipulate in the remit of the constitutional courts the settlement of the authority conflicts between public authorities, the constitutional courts do not analyse the fundamental rights and freedoms.

"Therefore, the Constitutional Court couldn't have violated the right to an equitable trial of an individual for the simple reason that in the procedure presented before the Constitutional Court another aspect was examined which exclusively targeted the remits of public authorities," the CCR release mentions.

According to the mentioned source, in the public space pieces of information are aired which do not present the legal issue in its entirety. The Constitutional Court recommends that "the two judgments be read in good faith and their comments be based on the legal arguments included in the two decisions."

Laura-Codruta Kovesi won on Tuesday at the European Court of Human Rights the trial by which she challenged the decision that had her removed from the office of prosecutor-in-chief of the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA), a press release of the institution based in Strasbourg informed.

According to the ECHR, Romania violated Kovesi's rights by removing her from office before the end of her term.