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Minister of Justice Catalin Predoiu stated on Thursday that it is dangerous to claim that prosecutor's offices that are not specialized cannot implement and enforce the law in cases including corruption offenses committed by magistrates, all prosecutor's offices having powers in this regard.
The minister participated, in the Legal Committee of the Chamber of Deputies, in the debate on the draft law on the abolition of the Section for the Investigation of Judicial Crimes (SIIJ).
"There has been a choice between demagoguery, inefficiency and failure, and it achieved the main goal out of several goals that it can have in the given context. The choice was to be irrational, unrealistic and to lead your government to failure or take a step forward on the path to normalization. The choice was between abolishing the SIIJ or continuing to talk here for months or maybe years about how to dismantle it ... The question of why there is a strong current in the judiciary and in the CSM [the Superior Council of Magistrates] against the implementation of a draft that would return the competence to DNA [the National Anticorruption Directorate] - it is not the ministry that has to answer that question. The associations responded, the CSM responded through the opinion it gave. It is absolutely incorrect to stigmatize the members of the CSM in a Stalinist way just because they have an opinion ... The bill was approved in the CSM by both judges and prosecutors," Predoiu declared during the debate.
According to the minister, "this false dilemma introduced in the judiciary from the political side, politicizing the judiciary, that some are reformists and others are not, must stop", adding that "it has gone too far with slanderous statements".
"There are magistrates who have different opinions, with arguments in favour and against, and they must be respected and treated as such. I had a choice between persisting in this blockade, whose responsibility is largely borne by the former leadership of the Ministry of Justice, which in 2021 ignored calls and signals from colleagues in the coalition, namely to discuss with the CSM until the opinion on the bill is obtained, so as not to be blocked in Parliament. I myself have drawn attention to this, and not publicly. (...) If we are here today, we are because it was a total failure the way it was done in 2021. I refuse to push my own government into failure and to continue to push the judiciary into this guilt, which is incomparably more important than the other big issues that are waiting in line - the laws of justice, logistics and so on. Therefore, if I have chosen to do something, I did not choose, as it is alleged, to side with X or Y because some are retrogrades and others reformists, but I have chosen to build a viable solution that would go through Parliament with the vote of the CSM and to do a service to the country. That was my choice and I am not ashamed of it," he said.
He added in the context that the Romanian prosecutor's offices are all competent, there is no need for specialized structures, Agerpres.ro informs.
"It is dangerous to argue that non-specialized prosecutor's offices cannot implement and enforce the law in cases including those involving corruption offenses committed by magistrates. This is dangerous, I refuse to give this message. Romanian prosecutor's offices - specialized or, say common law - they are all competent, and the fact that the legislator opts for one competence or another does not mean an implicit blame for the other prosecutors who do not have competence. Let us steer clear of these dangerous false dilemmas. The world will not be able to trust the judiciary if we send message after message that only specialized structures can be trusted. Prosecutors will not find the inner impetus to fight, including corruption, in the judiciary if we send the message that they have no value unless they are in specialized structures. (...) To make a trial of intent only because the fact that the legislator opted for a system seems to me to be dangerous for the trust in the judiciary and I categorically reject this path," said Predoiu.
The Minister of Justice reminded that the deadline in the government program for the abolition of the SIIJ is March 31, 2022.
"If we exceed this deadline, the opposition will rightly come and say that we do not do our job within the set deadline (...) It was said that the previous draft was blocked, because it was hastily published. False! That bill that is currently in Parliament has been blocked since the spring of last year. I published the draft in January 2022, months apart," Predoiu said.
