The second man from the CSM, the prosecutor who appears in the Recorder documentary, message addressed directly to Ilie Bolojan

The vice-president of the Superior Council of Magistracy, the representative of the prosecutors in the institution with the role of guarantor of the independence of the judiciary, Claudiu Sandu, told Euronews Romania that Romania has become a “paradise of criminals” while the judicial system returned to the 90s. The prosecutor claims that justice cannot repair itself and politicians are needed to make the changes, pointing to Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan as well.

“The role of justice in any society is to punish the perpetrator. Since we no longer have this social function of punishing criminals and criminals fly free and escape without prison and with the stolen money, it is obvious that the place where justice does not work is a paradise for criminals. Look at the way in which final sentencing decisions, some even executed, are brought back into question,” Sandu told Euronews Romania, the prosecutor who also appears in the Recorder documentary.

The magistrate indicated the precarious legislation in our country, appreciating that including the Justice laws, adopted in 2022, are bad.

“The old Justice laws, which were so much blamed, were much higher in quality than the current Justice laws. By adopting the new laws, some procedures were instituted that almost ended any form of democracy in the Romanian judiciary,” Sandu emphasized.

The prosecutor gave as an example the way of leadership in courts and prosecutor's offices, where only the president of the court or the chief prosecutor of the prosecutor's office obtains a mandate through a contest organized by the CSM.

“After which he proposes the deputy or the vice-president of the court. He proposes the heads of sections that the CSM appoints, but on the proposal of the president. (…) This is a completely undemocratic procedure, because if we establish some powers, and the governing body has quite serious powers in the area of Justice, we should be sure that, in addition to the president or the chief prosecutor, the others are chosen by the colleagues, they are not appointed based on the president's proposal”, he specified Sandu, recalling that the magistrates protested this change at the time.

The degradation of the rule of law, after 2017

The Vice-President of the CSM stated that the rule of law in Romania began to degrade after 2017, with the Emergency Ordinance 13. In his opinion and that of his fellow magistrates, the adoption of the Justice Laws of 2022, although well structured, represented a significant regression, bringing us back to negative influences on justice, similar to the 90s.

However, the existence of the continuation of the files and the fight for justice is based on the progress of the last 15-20 years, but found in decline after 2017, Sandu also emphasized.

The representative of the prosecutors in the CSM also states that the judiciary does not have the capacity to “repair itself” and that change needs to come from politicians.

“As long as the politician destroyed the Justice and brought it to the situation it is in now, it would be right for these political men of the country to take some factual measures, not just words”, emphasized the vice-president of the CSM, pointing to the Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan.

“The one who has leverage is called Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan. If Mr. Prime Minister assumed responsibility for a set of laws and finally, for saving Romania from bankruptcy and under others and for returning magistrates to a pension, at the age of 65 and to a European pension, the responsibility should also reach for saving justice as a public service. That is, the legislative changes should be made quickly, by assuming, the Government to take the risk of being dismissed, as he takes the risk for other legislative changes, because this is a serious matter, that is, after all, the non-functioning of justice leads directly to the non-functioning of the rule of law”, emphasized Sandu.

Recorder disclosures

The documentary “Captured Justice” was published on Tuesday evening by the Recorder on its YouTube channel.

The film is an investigation about the state of justice in Romania, the phenomenon of statutes of limitations, but also the effects of the centralization of power at the level of “some magistrates who coexist with politicians”.

In the Recorder documentary, the military prosecutor Liviu Lascu, Crin Bologa, the former chief prosecutor of the DNA between the periods of Laura Codruța Kovesi and Marius Voineag, but also a prosecutor from the DNA and a judge from the Court of Appeal, who spoke anonymously, were interviewed.

Claudiu Sandu, representative of the prosecutors in the CSM, said that the excessively formal interpretation of the law led to the annulment of the evidence in the file “for anything”, for what he metaphorized as “a comma”.

“We ended up reinventing the law,” said Sandu, who said that “I don't remember a big guilty verdict lately.” The massacre of the idea of ​​justice, said Sandu, demobilizes the magistrates and disarms the citizens.