Behind the scenes of the press conference that stunned Romania, told by a well-known investigative journalist

The meeting of the management of the Bucharest Court of Appeal with the press had televised moments – they surprised or even shocked the public. But there were also sequences that people did not see and which Răzvan Luțac from the investigation site Snoop, a journalist with many impactful investigations, followed for years, reports. But even he, regardless of his years reporting from courtrooms, says it was surreal what happened today.

A judge who spoke at the head's microphone about solidarity. Chief who called an investigation “public incitement against the constitutional order”. A phone call from Lia Savonea. Dozens of journalists and dozens of judges separated by a network of cameras.

This is how the extraordinary conference showed in which the Bucharest Court of Appeal wanted to defend itself, but left dozens of questions in the air after the Recorder documentary.

The rooms where pictures are not taken, usually

The Istrate Micescu Hall in the Court of Appeal, on Cheiul Dâmboviței, opens for an extraordinary press conference long before 12:00. She really is extraordinary. For decades, the barrage of cameras remains, at best, on the stairs near the Hall of Lost Steps, the building's emblem.

Now, dozens of journalists are preparing to ask questions of the court's leadership, which appears in an entire chapter of the Recorder documentary called “Captured Justice.” A generation of journalists who only saw something like this in the photo archive of Agerpres, where gray and lilac jackets were leaning against the wooden benches in the pictures. Since then, pictures are taken in courtrooms only rarely, “for illustration”, with the courtroom empty.

Recorder takes the first ticket

But the press is inside and pulling tickets to ask questions. Number 1 is Recorder. Should follow Digi24, HotNews, PRO, TVR, G4Media, Center for Media Investigations, Snoop, Epoch Times, Explicative, Context, are most TV, print media and radio sites. The interest is huge.

Especially since the President of the Court, Liana Nicoleta Arsenie, refused the interview with Recorder journalists, before the publication of the video documentary.

One by one, the leadership of the Bucharest Court of Appeal (CAB) appears in the frame. There are 13 judges, all in civilian clothes. In the lead is Liana Nicoleta Arsenie. Next to her, Ionela Tudor and Sabina Daniela Adomniței, two of the three “vices”. The third, Adriana Pencea, sits on the side. Behind them appear more than 20 other magistrates, who are standing, as in a photo at the end of the academic year.

But the smiles are missing.

“We are simply terrorized”

All are dressed in civilian clothes, except for one judge. The woman sits at the end, closest to the journalists, and wants to say something, but the noise covers her. She is invited to the microphone by fellow cameramen.

“I have been a judge for 26 years. I am here to support Laurentiu Beșu. Everything he says is true,” she begins.

Her name is Raluca Moroșanu and she is at odds with everything that happens around her. She speaks freely, she sits at the presidium, but standing, she is dressed in robes. Moroșanu is a judge at the Bucharest Court of Appeal, Criminal Division I, was a trainer at the National Institute of Magistracy and the National School of Clerks; he was a member of the Drafting Commission of the new Code of Criminal Procedure.

“Here, at the Court of Appeal, we work very hard. The management does not help us in any way. We are simply terrorized with disciplinary actions. I don't want to tell you what a toxic and tense situation we are in,” says the judge.

The grimaces of her colleagues, became memes faster than a report can be written, and the applause coming from behind subtitles the shock of the moment.

Then follows the moment of Liana Nicoleta Arsenie.

Continuation of the report on Snoop.