Judge Laurentiu Beşu, who made revelations in the Recorder documentary, interviewed today at the CSM to become a prosecutor
Laurentiu Beșu Photo: video capture / Recorder
Laurențiu Ionel Beșu, the magistrate who spoke to Recorder journalists in the documentary “Captured Justice”, no longer wants to work at the court. He asked the Superior Council of Magistracy (CSM) to work as a prosecutor in Giurgiu, and he is holding the interview today.
Beșu's hearing is scheduled for Tuesday, at 12:00.
An announcement was posted on the SCM website stating that, on December 16, the Section for Prosecutors of the SCM will hold the interview in the procedure for the appointment from the position of judge to that of prosecutor, according to the provisions of art. 194 of Law no. 303/2022 regarding the status of judges and prosecutors.
What the procedure provides
The procedure provides that, upon their reasoned request, judges can be appointed as prosecutors at the prosecutor's offices attached to the judges, and prosecutors can be appointed as judges at the judges, by decree of the President of Romania, at the proposal of the CSM Section.
Among the 14 judges applying to become prosecutors is Laurentiu Beşu, who is a magistrate at the Bucharest Court and is requesting to be appointed prosecutor at the Prosecutor's Office attached to the Giurgiu Court.
Judge Beșu's revelations from the Recorder investigation
In the documentary broadcast on Tuesday evening, December 9, by Recorder, entitled “Captured Justice”, judge Laurențiu Beșu makes revelations about serious facts that happened at the Bucharest Court of Appeal (CAB), the court where he worked for a while, after being transferred, by delegation, from the Giurgiu Court.
Laurentiu Beșu said that, after he came to the CAB, his new colleagues told him that he was moved because they no longer wanted him to be part of the panel that tried the doctor Mircea Beuran, accused of corruption.
“I was approached by the president of the Giurgiu Tribunal, who proposed that I go to the Bucharest Court of Appeal, that the Court called and now is the time to make a decision, to think and tell her on the same day. I thought and said that yes, it is a good decision to promote. This stagnation in the profession also intervenes and you think about evolving”, said Beșu, in the “Captured Justice” investigation.
“The judges at the Bucharest Court of Appeal, Section II, were perplexed by my arrival there. Later, there were discussions with colleagues from the Court, who told me: “You see that you had a file there and, as far as we know, it is a practice that in sensitive cases there are changes in the composition of the panel”. And then I realized that I had the file of Mr. Dr. Beuran pending at the Giurgiu Court. (…) No I raised the issue that there is a connection between the alleged promotion and a certain file”, the judge stated in the documentary.
“Some colleagues, who are older there (at the Court of Appeal, no) assured me that “be sure there is a connection”. The case was resolved by another colleague, with an acquittal solution. We do not comment on the colleagues' solutions. An appeal was formulated, at the Bucharest Court of Appeal, and the acquittal solution remained”, added the judge.
Later, Laurențiu Beșu stated in the Recorder documentary, his delegation to the CAB was extended several times, until the spring of this year, when he joined a panel that had an appeal pending in the case of Niculae Bădălău.
At the hearing of the appeal, he had a different opinion from his colleague from the panel, and shortly after he was informed by the head of the CAB section that his delegation would not be extended.
The Bucharest Court of Appeal accused him of lying and asked him to urgently clarify his status. In reply, Beșu said, for Euronews, that “everything I said is true and can be verified from the documents from the CAB or with information from the court portal”.
