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The Minister of Justice, Stelian Ion, announced that on Thursday he will send to the Superior Council of the Magistracy (SCM) a project to repeal the controversial Section of Investigation of Crimes in Justice (SIIJ), in order to obtain an opinion on the matter. He said he would like the bill to repeal the special section that will be adopted by parliament no later than the end of March.
Stelian Ion stated, at a press conference, that only the part referring to the abolition of the SIIJ was kept from the initial draft bill, eliminating the other articles referring to the so-called “superimmunities” of judges and prosecutors, which “had no place” in this project. The initial bill provided that the initiation of the criminal investigation of the magistrates would be conditioned by the opinion of the attorney general and that the prosecutors and judges would be prosecuted only with the opinion of the sections of the SCM.
- “(…) Today we will send the project to the SCM. I want to make it clear that, from the initial draft bill, I was left only the part referring to the abolition of the SIIJ, eliminating the other articles that referred to the call super-Immunities of judges and prosecutors, who had not requested either and which, from my point of view, had no place in this bill.
- We have had a good collaboration with the SCM so far, we have obtained those opinions and I am optimistic that the same will happen in the future and we will get an opinion from the SCM on this bill, ”said Stelian Ion.
The project for the abolition of the SIIJ must first be approved by the SCM, then approved by the Government, after which it will be presented to Parliament.
Stelian Ion said he would like this project to be adopted by the end of March at the latest and “back to normal.”
- “It is a period that I consider reasonable and that can be met, but it is not only related to our institution. We will do our work quickly to say it, it will also be related to Parliament, but I can tell you that we have a good collaboration with Parliament and I am convinced that things will go faster there as well. “
The Justice Minister also said that on Thursday he will send a response to GRECO indicating that the abolition of the SIIJ is a priority established by the government program.
The epic of the Special Section, the promises and the apologies of Predoiu
On December 27, 2019, the Orban Government adopted a Memorandum proposing the abolition of the Criminal Investigation Section in Justice. Cătălin Predoiu stated that the abolition of the SIIJ is a priority of his mandate.
- “This section was compromised by the act of establishment itself. The texts of the law that organize it were compromised from the beginning, establishing a competence that practically paralyzes its activity. It does not function with such competence strictly assigned to the magistrates in which to investigate any act committed by magistrates – corruption or non-corruption – by this section with 15 prosecutors.
- I am not saying the loophole that has been opened and through which a series of cases can now be delayed by simple complaints against the magistrates, cases that are in various places in the country where the department cannot reach, “said Cătălin Predoiu on 9 December 2019 on B1. TV, according to Agerpres.
On February 4, 2020, the Ministry of Justice debated a first bill on the abolition of the Magistrates’ Instruction Section.
The project also envisaged the modification of Law 303 on the condition of judges and prosecutors, in the sense that the criminal process in the case of a judge or prosecutor can only be initiated with the prior authorization of the attorney general, and the processing of the magistrates is approved by the Superior Council of the Magistracy. Likewise, the Ministry of Justice led by Cătălin Predoiu proposed by means of this project the modification of Law 317 of the Superior Council of the Magistracy.
- “Art. 1 – (1) On the date of entry into force of this law, the Criminal Crimes Investigation Section of the Prosecutor’s Office attached to the Superior Court of Cassation and Justice, hereinafter the Section, will be abolished.
- (2) Pending cases at the Section level will be transmitted administratively, within 5 business days following the effective date of this law, by the Prosecutor’s Office attached to the Superior Court of Cassation and Justice, to the competent prosecutor’s offices. the law, which continues to resolve them ”, stipulates the draft law debated almost 3 months ago.
- “It is a priority that we want to fulfill, not to see it rejected by a hostile majority. We must also consider the context in which we launched this project and make sure that its trajectory is one of approval, as we want, in the sense of its adoption and not of rejection, “said Cătălin Predoiu the day before the publication of this project.
The abolition of the SIIJ is also foreseen in the bills to repair the three justice laws modified in Parliament by PSD-ALDE, projects put to debate by the Ministry of Justice led by Cătălin Predoiu in September this year.
At the end of his term, Predoiu stated that he did not abolish the Special Section because he would not have a majority to vote on the bill in Parliament.
Seven unsuccessful attempts to appoint Adina Florea as head of the SIIJ
The Department of Investigation of Crimes in Justice was established within the Office of the Prosecutor of the Superior Court of Cassation and Justice and became operational on October 23, 2017. It has exclusive competence to try crimes committed by judges and prosecutors, including military judges and prosecutors . who have the quality of members of the Superior Council of the Magistracy.
The section was headed by Gheorghe Stan, the former head of the Judicial Inspection, the only institution empowered to discipline magistrates and who during the mandate of Tudorel Toader initiated several disciplinary actions against former DNA chief Laura Codruța Kovesi. Meanwhile, Gheorghe Stan was appointed CCR judge, at the suggestion of PSD.
The deputy chief prosecutor for the section was Adina Florea, nominated three times by Tudorel Toader for DNA leadership and rejected by President Klaus Iohannis.
Adina Florea won the competition at the SCM for the position of chief prosecutor of the section, but her candidacy was not validated, since several magistrates boycotted the meetings of the SCM.
Lia Savonea, former president of the Superior Council of the Magistracy, had 7 unsuccessful attempts to appoint Adina Florea to head the special section. Adina Florea withdrew on December 5, 2019 from the procedure for appointing the head of the Special Section, after 7 unsuccessful attempts by former SCM chief Lia Savonea to appoint her as the chief prosecutor of this section.
Criticism of the EC
The section has also been criticized by European bodies. The European Commission showed in its last MCV report that the operation of the Special Section confirmed the fears expressed both in Romania and abroad that it could be used as an instrument of political pressure.
There have also been several situations in which the Special Section has intervened to change the course of criminal investigations in a way that raises serious doubts about their objectivity, EC experts said. An example is the opening of a criminal case against the former head of ADN, during the period in which she was also running for the post of European Attorney General. Another example is the decision of the Special Section to open a criminal case against the former First Vice-President of the European Commission, Frans Timermans, although the section had no jurisdiction.
The European Commission has also criticized the Section’s actions to initiate investigations against judges and prosecutors who opposed changes in the laws of the Judiciary, as well as the focus on judicial cases, such as the withdrawal of appeals previously presented by DNA in cases of corruption. at a high level.
