Recorder, about the interview of the head of the CAB on Realitatea TV: “It appears in prime-time on the television of a criminal convict, whose file is going to reach the very court that he presides over”

Recorder journalists commented on Friday evening the “symbolic move” made a day ago by the president of the Bucharest Court of Appeal (CAB), Liana Arsenie, who gave an interview to the Realitatea Plus television station. They say that the situation is “all the more strange” since the owner of Realitatea has a case to be judged by the court led by Liana Arsenie, who “was presented in a very favorable light” by the news channel.

“In the middle of the most important debate about the state of the judiciary in recent years, the head of the Bucharest Court of Appeal makes a symbolic move: she appears in prime-time on the television of a criminal convict, whose case is going to reach the very court she presides over”, wrote the journalists from Rocorder on Friday, after the interview with Liana Arsenie broadcast by Realitatea Plus.

“The president of the Bucharest Court of Appeal, refused to appear in the Recorder documentary (“Captured Justice, no”) to explain the accusations that her decisions help those accused in high corruption cases to escape unpunished. He then held a press conference where, after the first questions, he turned his back and left, still refusing to explain the serious allegations against him. Then, a judge from her subordinate (reference to Raluca Moroșanu, no) said that Liana Arsenie asks the judges to be humane with the defendants and that “tax evasion does not really exist”, the journalists note, in a message published on the publication's Facebook page.

According to the Recorder, Liana Arsenie has not come out publicly, so far, to combat these extremely serious accusations, but the head of the CAB “did, however, do something”.

“Yesterday evening (Thursday, no) he received a Realitatea TV team in his office from the Bucharest Court of Appeal and gave an interview about the abuses committed by Laura Codruța Kovesi ten years ago. Nothing about the abuses that she herself is currently accused of, nor about the accusations that say they would protect criminals. The Realitatea TV television station is patronized by Maricel Păcuraru, a businessman sentenced to prison for complicity in abuse of office and money laundering of money. Reality TV was repeatedly fined by the CNA for disinformation and constantly promoted Călin Georgescu, a politician sent to court for actions against the constitutional order,” the investigative publication's journalists say.

Their conclusion is that “the situation is all the more strange as Maricel Păcuraru, the owner of Realitatea TV, currently has a case before the Bucharest Court, a court located in the lower hierarchical range of the Bucharest Court of Appeal. This means that, on appeal, the file of the owner of Realitatea TV will be judged by the court led by Liana Arsenie, who went on Păcuraru's television and was presented in a very favorable light”.

The Recorder mentions that it tried to contact Liana Arsenie to provide a point of view on this situation, but the CAB chief did not respond by the time the message was published online.

“Tax evasion doesn't really exist like that, in general”

Judge Raluca Moroșanu, from the Bucharest Court of Appeal (CAB), who took a public position against the current management of the institution, stating that “everything her colleagues said” in the Recorder documentary “Captured Justice” is true, recently narrated an episode about Liana Arsenie.

Raluca Moroșanu was asked, in an interview given to the investigative publication, if she feels that the current management of the CAB “wants lenient judges with the defendants”.

“I don't feel it, I know. I know that he wants colleagues who are lenient with the defendants. Because we keep being told, including we had professional training seminars where we keep being told that we have to be human. Mrs. Arsenie like that, that we have to be human, to be human, to understand the problems of the defendants”, replied Raluca Moroșanu.

“For example, we had a seminar on tax evasion, where a lady lawyer, university professor, was brought to hold the seminar, it's true, I mean I also have your books in my office, I read them, so that's not what it's about, only that during the two days of the seminar about 90% was explained to us how to acquit new defendants for tax evasion”, continued the judge.

Moroșanu also claimed, in the interview given to the Recorder, that the head of the Bucharest Court of Appeal “came personally” to tell the magistrates at the seminar “that other alternatives to criminal charges should be found” in tax evasion cases.

“Mrs. Arsenie personally came to tell us during this seminar that tax evasion does not really exist like that, in general, and that the last resort should be the conviction of the defendants for tax evasion, that other alternatives to criminal charges should be found, that the vast majority should end up in civil, and not criminal, please, probably litigious, and that the liability of the administrators of some companies should be civil, not criminal, in the case of this act”, Raluca Moroșanu also declared.

What Liana Arsenie said in the interview with Realitatea Plus

In the interview given to the journalist Ionela Arcanu from Realitatea Plus, Liana Arsenie spoke about the pressures that were exerted from the office of the former head of DNA, Laura Codruța Kovesi, for sentences in the files of certain politicians, an example being that of Lia Olguța Vasilescu.

“You caused a storm in the judicial system because you assumed to say something before the deadline from Lia Olguța Vasilescu. Can you explain to us in what form the pressure came from the prosecutor Elena Grecu?”, asked journalist Realitatea.

“First of all, through this non-procedural contact before the court session. The judge's interaction is in the courtroom. The solutions are pronounced during the deliberation process, after the session we analyze the evidence and everything in the file, the judge is the one who determines what the solution will be. In this context, I had the unpleasant, shocking surprise, because I didn't think something like this could happen: until I got to the CAB, the First Criminal Section, I woke up with The prosecutor appeared in the office, said who she was, and asked me verbatim, changing the procedural qualities of two defendants. My reaction was: “Yes, we will discuss in the courtroom”. The pressure was evident by the insistence with which the prosecutor tried to impose a certain solution on me, according to the news television website.

“The intimidation process continued, because the prosecutor used some procedural tools for this purpose. Although the judge resolved some requests, the prosecutor refused to obey the court's orders, in the sense that she refused to submit conclusions on the merits of the case, continuously claiming, bypassing the court's order, that she was not competent,” the head of the CAB also stated.

“I cannot speculate on the reaction of colleagues to these forms of pressure. There were messages, procedural tools used in a way of coercion and intimidation. There were, as a means of coercion, the instrumentalization of criminal files against some judges, not only in criminal matters, exclusively for the solution pronounced in the case. The solution that the judge adopts can only be changed by way of appeal. There have been situations – and they can be proven – where files were made to judges for the pronounced solutions”, Arsene also said.

The full interview given to Realitatea Plus by the head of CAB, below: