More than 3,000 persons have so far signed the initiative launched by several civic organisations expressing their support for Deputy Prime Minister Oana Gheorghiu, whom the Superior Council of Magistracy (CSM) has accused of incitement to violence, hatred or discrimination.
On Monday, the CSM announced that it had decided to refer the matter to the relevant authorities for investigation into the alleged offence of incitement to violence, hatred or discrimination, in connection with Deputy Prime Minister Oana Gheorghiu's statements regarding judges' pensions.
The open letter titled 'Sign for normality: Magistrates are not a vulnerable or disadvantaged category' had been signed by over 3,300 people by Tuesday morning. The CSM is urged to withdraw its criminal complaint and return to its fundamental role - 'defending justice, not privileges,' according to a post on the Facebook page of the Coruptia Ucide (Corruption Kills) organisation.
'The Superior Council of Magistracy considers that Deputy Prime Minister Oana Gheorghiu incited violence, hatred and discrimination when she appealed to the humanitarian sentiments of magistrates to persuade them to understand and accept the reduction of special pensions. Consequently, the CSM filed a criminal complaint invoking Article 369 of the Criminal Code, intended to protect categories of persons or groups attacked on criteria such as race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, gender, sexual orientation, political opinion, disability or other similar grounds. It is absurd that magistrates, one of the most privileged professional categories in Romania, should claim to be disadvantaged and vulnerable. It is also dangerous that a humanitarian argument, no matter how poorly expressed, has come to be regarded by Romanian magistrates as incitement to violence, hatred and discrimination,' the organisations behind the initiative mentioned.
On Monday, the Superior Council of Magistracy issued a press release saying that through her remarks Oana Gheorghiu had violated the independence of justice and the status of magistrates in an 'irresponsible' and 'populist' manner.
When asked on Saturday during a programme on Digi 24 private television broadcaster how she would solve the issue of magistrates' special pensions, Oana Gheorghiu replied: 'I would send the magistrates a message - I would tell them that I understand them. It is very difficult to give up something you have been granted. (...) It is very hard to benefit from something for years, for decades, and suddenly be told you no longer have it. For anyone, that would be hard to accept. But I think this was a kind of Ponzi scheme. They were caught in a Ponzi scheme, which could not last forever, and people who are pragmatic and rational should understand that. Romania can no longer afford to pay this money, it can no longer afford to have special pensioners. We simply cannot, and if that money has to go to them for delivering rulings, it is taken from somewhere else - it may be taken from the mouth of a child who goes to bed hungry, or from the budget of a hospital that lacks medicine.'
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