CSM has positioned itself on the side of purely political interests, says judge Adrian Neacsu

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Judge Adrian Neacsu who represents tribunals on the Superior Magistracy Council (CSM), says that, with the positions and actions of the previous leadership, the institution representing Romanian magistrates positioned itself, since the summer, on the side of purely political interests and played alongside the various political actors, Mediafax informs. Judge Adrian Neacsu says in an interview that the election of prosecutor Oana Schmidt Haineala as President of the Council both the members of CSM and the almost 5,000 judges in Romania know that CSM ‘has slid down a slope of partisan action indefinitely’ and that the other prosecutors on the Council are unfortunately incapable to oppose the trend. Furthermore, Neacsu says a CSM that will keep poaching the stick through the fences of politicians and parties, provoking and irritating, is dangerous to the safety of the judicial system and foreign to its original mission. ‘Apart from personal differences, or the fact that, for example, judges reject the abusive and choleric conduct of prosecutor Haineala, it is essentially about the fact that we have different options regarding political interference with the work of CSM,’ Neacsu says. ‘We denounce political derailments in the activity of CSM leaders last year. We almost have the certainty that this year things will deteriorate further and will become even more obvious. With the positions and action of its previous leaders, as of the summer, CSM positioned itself on the side of purely political interests and played alongside the various political actors. (…)  With the election of Prosecutor Haineala as chief of CSM, both we in CSM and the almost 5,000 judges in the country know that CSM slid down a slope of partisan action indefinitely. (…) We have seen that prosecutors across the country achieve enviable unanimities backing their representatives and heads, challenging their own professional associations,’ Neacsu says. The judge concludes: ‘We are not saying that CSM should remain inert in case of political attack on the independence of the judiciary. On the contrary, the response has to be firm and prompt, but in all cases positions must be impartial and equidistant’.

Justice Ministry: Prosecution, DNA and DIICOT heads wanted

The Ministry of Justice is going to open a new procedure for the selection of candidates for the position of prosecutor general of the High Court Prosecutor’s Office, chief prosecutor of the National Anti-Corruption Directorate (DNA) and Directorate for the Investigation of Organised Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT), in keeping with the Romanian Government’s commitments within the CVM.Justice Minister Mona Pivniceru has asked the prosecutors in the leadership of the Public Ministry to refer to her, by February 25, names of candidates for the mentioned positions. In the period before the formal beginning of the procedure, the minister of justice intends to have several talks with the prosecutors, in order to make sure that magistrates with a high professional qualification and integrity guarantees apply. The invitation was sent to the first deputy prosecutor general of the High Court Prosecutor’s Office, as well as to the chief prosecutors of DNA and DIICOT, to the prosecutors general of court of appeal prosecutor’s offices and to the chief prosecutors of the DNA and DIICOT local departments.