Lia Savonea, a new controversial move to the High Court. “Extremely serious consequences for the functioning of justice”

The judges of the Criminal Section of the High Court of Cassation and Justice were summoned on Friday in a meeting in which they were announced that all the court panels will be abolished and reorganized, the decision causing the dissatisfaction of many magistrates, sources from the institution led by Lia Savonea told HotNews. The former Minister of Justice Stelian Ion also reports this situation:

The reason cited by the leadership of the supreme court for the reorganization of the criminal panels was that seven new judges must be included in them.

The meeting convened on Friday with the judges from the Criminal Section of the Supreme Court was a tense one, sources from the institution told HotNews.

In a first phase, the reorganization of the panel of judges, which includes judge Simona Cârnaru, known as a magistrate who is not part of the ICCJ president Lia Savonea's area of ​​influence, was discussed, judicial sources told HotNews. Because several magistrates criticized the decision, it was decided to reorganize all the court panels.

Officially, the representatives of the ICCJ say that a decision on the composition of the panels will be taken next week, when the meeting of the Governing Board will take place.

“There was a consultation of the judges regarding the formation of the panels with the inclusion of the seven new judges, but the annual composition of the panels is approved in the Board of Directors, which will take place next week,” ICCJ representatives told HotNews.

“A Masked Purge”

The former Minister of Justice Stelian Ion also reports the situation at the High Court of Cassation and Justice and draws attention to the consequences of the abolition and reorganization of all panels.

“Today, at the Criminal Section of the High Court of Cassation and Justice, a meeting took place with extremely serious consequences for the functioning of the judiciary. Despite the protests and opposition expressed by some magistrates, all panels of the criminal section were abolished and reorganized, including the two panels that had remained uncontrolled until now by Lia Savonea. Their members will be replaced by newly arrived judges from other sections.

This could also mean that, starting today, national security warrants are no longer resolved by criminal judges, but by those from administrative litigation, without the criminal judges having even been informed in advance about this major change”, wrote Stelian Ion, on Facebook.

The former USR minister states that, instead of taking a step back after the serious revelations in the Recorder documentary, “the Savonea group chose to blow up the entire Criminal Section of the ÎCCJ”:

“We are not talking about reform, but about a masked purge, done in haste, without transparency and without respect for elementary rules of institutional functioning. This is not justice. It is the capture of justice and risks becoming a national security issue.”

Lia Savonea, key positions in the judicial system of Roânia, in the last 15 years

Lia Savonea's name also appears in the Recorder documentary “Captured Justice”, which contains testimonies of magistrates who say that in recent years, judges brought from other courts in the country, with controversial biographies and whose close relatives had serious problems with the law, were promoted to the management of the Bucharest Court of Appeal. According to the publication, behind the promotions was Lia Savonea, the current president of the High Court, who in the last 15 years has held key positions in the judicial system and who is indicated by several magistrates as the “absolute leader of the Romanian Judiciary”.

Lia Savonea had a controversial route. In 2010, she was questioned by the DNA for alleged relations with the PSD-ist Cătălin Voicu's network, and then she was rejected by the CSM for reasons of integrity when she tried to promote to the High Court, but later she had a meteoric rise. Savonea became a member of the CSM, gathered an anti-reformist majority that supported the legislative changes promoted by the PSD during Liviu Dragnea's time, and recently took over the leadership of the High Court.

According to the testimonies in the documentary, an atmosphere of fear has been established among honest magistrates and there are situations in which, if you have opinions contrary to the leadership of the court, you end up being checked by the Judicial Inspection, “which will surely find something for you”.