A former general prosecutor of Romania, according to the Recorder documentary: “A small, obedient group from the judiciary, with connections in the political environment, was publicly indicated”

“The justice system is the state's immune system. If this system is dysfunctional, there is no justice, and in its absence, chaos sets in”, said the same former general prosecutor who also recently stated that the Revolution and Mining files were procrastinated due to the “disguised will of the politicians involved, imposed on a short-sighted justice”.

Augustin Lazăr, the former general prosecutor of Romania in the period 2016-2019 and university professor at the “1 Decembrie 1918” University in Alba Iulia, analyzes in a paper the degradation of the independence of the Romanian judiciary and the effects of the judicial counter-reform launched after 2017.

He also refers to the Recorder documentary and the debate that followed, stating that they “expose an x-ray of the decline of the independence of the Romanian judiciary since the 2017-2020 legislature, the result of a duplicitous political will, restoring the oligarchic system”, according to News.ro.

“It is worth noting the subtle strategy of restorative measures, saving for politicians and their financiers involved in legal proceedings (CCR decisions, emergency ordinances, discreet decriminalization of abuse of office and conflict of interest, etc.). In order to save group interests, the measures quickly modified and altered the normative framework of joining the European Union. After the repeal of GEO No. 13/2017, the politicians in power launched an insidious “project T – zero, restoration of social peace: Romania dialogue” (do ut des: social peace with impunity)”, the former prosecutor said on Sunday.

“A small, obedient group from the judiciary, with connections in the political environment, known in the media as the “Wives' CSM” was publicly indicated. In exchange for sinecures and the assurance of impunity, the group accepted cooperation, supported the formulation of restorative counter-reform projects, did proselytizing and, gradually, allegedly took over control of the judiciary,” he continued.

Lazar demands the initiation of investigations

Augustin Lazăr claims that the Public Ministry is responsible for clarifying these suspicions.

“The Public Ministry is challenged, now, to take over from the public debate and judicially clarify, coldly, a hot issue. This concerns the possible links between the series of questionable solutions – of suspicious termination of the criminal action -, arranged in the files of the big corrupt and the positions that the members of the group and their proselytes occupy in the state institutions”, Lazar also transmitted.

He also says that “in judicial activity, the Public Ministry represents the general interests of society and defends the legal order, as well as the rights and freedoms of citizens”.

“The role of the competent prosecutors is to find out the truth about the facts of the organized corruption networks, denounced in the public debate”, the former general prosecutor also conveyed.

What does it say about judicial counter-reform

“In 2018, when anti-corruption was working, the occupant of the chair of the Minister of Justice publicly declared that “justice is creaking”, then he initiated procedures to revoke the chief prosecutor of the DNA and the general prosecutor of Romania for the opposition to the counter-reform and the public defense of the independence of the judiciary. Through successive emergency ordinances – which, according to MCV reports, “caused extremely negative reactions” – was quickly carried out the restorative counter-reform. Then, with small touches, it was enshrined in the justice laws of 2022, presented as a great achievement in the imprudent context of raising the MCV”, writes Augustin Lazăr.

He states that, among other things, the competence of the DNA specialized structure in the matter of anti-corruption prosecution of magistrates was eliminated and replaced by the Criminal Investigation Section of Justice (independent of the Public Ministry). It was then abolished due to inefficiency and European recommendations and transformed into the special investigations service.

“This service can be staffed (amazing unconstitutional control of the investigation) only with prosecutors having the strict opinion of the CSM (!), mostly composed of the judges in question. In the context of severe control, with many rejections, it is devoid of human resources and practically devoid of activity, with no files on corrupt judges and prosecutors,” Lazar added.

“Almost all harmful changes are maintained”

The former general prosecutor also refers to the fact that the associations of magistrates “criticized the abandonment of meritocracy, the competition for the occupation of certain positions, recalling the obligation assumed by Romania, at the time of accession, to create a body of magistrates recruited exclusively on performance criteria”

“Despite the commitments made before the European Commission, almost all the harmful changes criticized by international bodies in recent years are maintained” (Association Forum of Judges from Romania, Association Movement for the Defense of the Status of Prosecutors, Association Initiative for Justice)”

Augustin Lazăr talks about blocking and miming the administration of justice

“The restoration of the situation prior to the judicial reforms of EU accession blocked and mimicked the administration of justice: in thousands of cases, the prescription of criminal liability occurred, and hundreds of millions of euros remained unrecovered by the Romanian state after the termination of the criminal action (which, although missing from Romania's budget, are not imputed to anyone). Publicly, the phenomenon was understood as a “recycling/whitewashing” of the corrupt and a masked amnesty”, he added sent the former attorney general.

According to him, under the astonished eyes of the Romanians, “a creative art of eliminating evidence and judicial speculation was developed by the lawyers of the corrupt defendants”.

“It was constantly and suspiciously admitted to the exotic jurisprudence of certain judges, producing extremely negative public reactions. The pinnacle of creative achievements was the exercise of extraordinary appeals, and based on the interpretation of the same evidence, the annulment of numerous final conviction decisions. Some even after the execution of the sentences, the Romanian State being obliged to pay damages for alleged judicial errors. Seeing the restoration, experts in the field have an exasperating feeling of “déjà vu”, of judicial discredit from the period 2000-2004″, the material signed by Augustin Lazăr also states.

According to him, experts in the field know what is about to happen, including the loss of public trust in justice as a strategic public service.

“Illustrating this state of mind, even the Vice-President of the CSM publicly declares: “”Romanian justice is a paradise for criminals!””.

“Suspicious judicial mechanisms and reprisals against honest magistrates. The media reported that often, the prescription of criminal liability occurred following the adoption of a repetitive mechanism to avoid the abusive application of the criminal law and the principle of random allocation. It consisted in the destructuring of the trial panels before the pronouncement and the resumption of the judicial investigation, forcibly interpreting the standards of the ECHR; with imputably prescribed files, on the judges' table”, it is also stated in the material signed by Augustin Lazar.

It refers to the media investigations that “denounce a pattern of illegal judicial conduct by which the big corruption cases are systematically “buried” through these repetitive mechanisms, including the modification of the legislation”.

“Other patterns of abusive behavior have been reported, including series of disciplinary actions and exclusions from the judiciary for magistrates with dignified, independent conduct (held busy), which were then overturned by the High Court of Cassation and Justice in the appeal. The serial and visibly disproportionate reaction of the SCM was only analyzed in the media,” Augustin Lazăr said.

According to him, the documentary, including the interviewed magistrates (supported by hundreds of other magistrates), denounces concrete facts of organized judicial corruption, which caused illegal and groundless solutions, indicating the files, the illegal acts carried out and the related evidence.

“The media analyzes suggest the investigative hypothesis of a “Pact with the devil: advantages/promotions with impunity/recycling”. The denunciations accredit the hypothesis of the alteration of justice laws as a result of a “dirty deal”, through lawyers, between criminally involved politicians and a small group of obedient but influential magistrates (also involved in the counter-reform law project)”, says the former general prosecutor.

He believes that these cases need to be investigated urgently, and the justice laws corrected as a priority.

“Given the unprecedented seriousness of the situation and the danger to the security of the state, the magistrates also request a life-saving, loyal cooperation of the will of the state external to the judicial system. In this unprecedented context, for the judicial clarification of the problems, it is mandatory to notify the competent prosecutors ex officio and to initiate large-scale investigations with the allocation of the necessary specialized resources, including the qualified informational support of the operators authorized according to the law”, is the opinion of the former prosecutor general.

He appreciates that the object of the investigations is aimed at verifying all reasonable suspicions regarding the circumstances, the authors and the evidence necessary to find out the truth regarding the practices of organized corruption denounced in the cited files.

“Social peace is dependent on the will and capacity of preparing the judiciary for its role”, concludes Augustin Lazăr.