The Recorder documentary, what CTP says: “It falls on the head like a slab.” What is worth spending money on in Romania, instead of paying a lawyer
“Since 2018, since the DNA was deprived of the right to investigate magistrates for corruption, no corrupt magistrate has been found. And one more thought makes me shudder: do you realize, in such an atmosphere, what bribes are given and taken in the courts, on the principle that it is better to buy a judge than to pay a lawyer?”, says journalist Cristian Tudor Popescu.
The writer and journalist Cristian Tudor Popescu saw the film Recorder, entitled “Captured Justice”. CTP commented on it on Facebook. He called it “one of the most important journalistic acts of the last 35 years. Logically structured, on an accumulation of testimonies, data, cases, without hatred and bias, mobilizing magistrates who took their hearts in their teeth and began to speak, the film falls into your head like a slab at the end”.
“He answered a question that has been troubling me for a long time: how can the magistrates, all of them, be inhumane solidarity with the villainy of special pensions?”, the journalist said.
CTP recalled moments of justice, which he wrote about in the decades of journalism. He remembers, for example, the periods when justice was so little free that not a prosecutor, but the minister of justice “released the files”.
“Judges and prosecutors used to fear the revenge of criminals, now they fear their guild leaders”
He recounts the moment when Rodica Stănoiu, “asked permission” from the party to start the files against Traian Băsescu. The independence of the case prosecutor practically did not exist.
After a period in which things worked, it ended, says Cristian Tudor Popescu, that “Simple magistrates, prosecutors and judges were intimidated, scared, blocked by various methods: detachments, delegations, relief without request, removal simply from court panels, promotion based on criteria known only to the CSM. The unwritten order word became: “If you want to ruin your career, do it the independent and fair one!”. In the old days, judges and prosecutors used to fear the revenge of criminals, now they fear their guild leaders (“Little Gods on Earth” – prosecutor's testimony)”.
“Thus, Lia Savonea's clique took control of the entire Judiciary. From this position of strength, it negotiated with high-profile criminals,” writes the journalist.
“Better to buy a judge than to pay a lawyer”
He reviews a few cases: “After Dragnea, 2019, no important person went to prison. Methods: procrastination of the file until the statute of limitations, restarting the file from scratch, after years of trial, stunning acquittals, the flight of those in question abroad, from where they will not be extradited. The list is long: Marean Vanghelie, Valeriu Zgonea, Puiu Popoviciu, Mario Iorgulescu, Ionuț Costea, Sebastian Vlădescu, Sorin Oprescu, Alina Bica, Remus Truică, Nicu Bănicioiu, the former bishop of Huși, Corneliu Onilă… The most recent: the former head of the CNAS, Lucian Duță, was annulled by the ÎCCJ's final sentence to 6 years in prison, for accepting a 6.3 million euro bribe in exchange for a contract of public money for the implementation of the health card”.
“And one more thought makes me shudder: do you realize, in such an atmosphere, what bribes are given and taken in the courts, on the principle that it is better to buy a judge than to pay a lawyer?”, said Cristian Tudor Popescu.
