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The Judge Section of the Supreme Council of Magistrates (CSM) ordered on Wednesday the expulsion from magistracy, for the second time, of Judge Cristi Danilet for disciplinary offenses consisting in membership of a political formation, participation in political public activities or expressing his political convictions while exercising his job responsibilities.
Cristi Danilet can appeal the CSM decision to the Supreme Court within 15 days.
Shortly after the CSM ruling was handed down, Danilet took to Facebook to explain that he is a member of two NGOs that were critical of the ruling parties.
"Today, the CSM decided to sanction me with the expulsion from the judiciary (for the second time, after the one in December 2021 for the two TikTok videos) because:
* I am [allegedly] a member of a political formation, which is forbidden to magistrates, because I am a member of two NGOs that issued statements that were critical of the governing parties' activity, although I abstained from voting on those statements, I did not sign or share them, and although I showed that the competence for determining what a political formation is doesn't fall on the CSM but on the law, which places in this category only 'political parties', 'electoral alliances', 'political alliances' and 'NGOs representing minorities and running in elections', which is not the case here;
* I [allegedly] participated in political actions, an activity forbidden to magistrates, because I wrote a scientific article on education which was published by one of the two NGOs and because I participated in a non-public meeting of the members of one of the two NGOs declared by CSM to be a 'political formation'," Danilet said.
"For those who don't know: the two NGOs are legally established by a judge as non-governmental, apolitical and non-profit associations. One deals with legal education, the other with the promotion of European culture. No one has ever called for their abolition for having violated their own status," the judge added.
Cristi Danilet, a judge at the Cluj Tribunal, was previously expelled from magistracy by the CSM in December 2021 for his alleged social media activities, specifically for two TikTok posts Danilet argues had nothing to do with the judiciary, but with his private life.
Danilet appealed the first CSM decision in court, but the trials have been dragging on for several months now. AGERPRES
