CSM vice president election likely to be postponed for lack of quorum

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Both candidates Alina Ghica and Cristian Danilet, say the election of the president of the Council was correct.

The meeting that was supposed to elect the vice president of the Superior Magistracy Council (CSM) today, from 15:00 was postponed because not all the members attended, some of them having filed their annual leave applications already before the winter holidays, magistracy sources as quoted by Mediafax as saying. If the information confirms, that is a second postponement, after the January 4 meeting was also suspended for the same reason. Judges Alina Ghica (photo), so far CSM President, and Cristian Danilet have applied for the position. At the beginning of the week, the Ramnicu Valcea Court House started the procedure for the dismissal of Danilet as CSM member, finding that he had improperly exercised his powers as a member of the Council by participating in a non-transparent procedure for the election of the leadership of CSM. A similar action was also expected from the Cluj Court of Appeal tomorrow, where a procedure could be put in motion for the dismissal of Alina Ghica as representative of the courts of appeal on CSM. Ghica however says he knows nothing about such an action in her case. More than that, she defends Danilet, saying that his dismissal would not have legal justification. Ghica also noted that, under the law, CSM members elected from among magistrates are suspended as judges and prosecutors during their term, which means they are no longer under the authority of the minister of justice or prosecutor general. At the same time, in an on-line talk with the HotNews.ro readers, Cristian Danilet said, yesterday, that the CSM members were elected by both judges and prosecutors and they can also dismiss them, in the first case the number of votes counting and, in the second case, the number of courts and prosecutor’s offices. ‘It takes a majority of them. Two thirds of the magistrates must vote for a dismissal on each side. My dismissal would require the vote of 89 out of 176 court houses’, Danilet said.The Association of Magistrates in Romania has convened its Steering Council for today, saying that the election of a prosecutor who is subject to hierarchic control as the head of CSM, a body supposed to guarantee the independence of justice, is ‘something unnatural and inappropriate’

Ponta: Daniel Morar made a fool of himself

The hearing of the candidates proposed to occupy the positions as prosecutor general of the Prosecutor’s Office of the High Court of Cassation and Justice (ICJ) and chief prosecutor of the National Anti-Corruption Directorate (DNA) that took place in December was a masquerade and Daniel Morar made a fool of himself, he acted ‘as if he had been Torquemada’, PM Victor Ponta said on a TV station Monday night. ‘The person for whom a replacement was being searched – Mr. Morar – interviewed the candidates who were supposed to take his place. Normally, he tried to make them look bad. I happen to know both prosecutors because we were colleagues and I have a good opinion on both of them, but, of course, it is not my opinion that counts here. (…) the idea is not to try to show who is smarter, but to see if those people are good or not’, Ponta said. We remind that Justice Minister Mona Pivniceru sent President Basescu, at the end of December, the proposals for the appointment of Tiberiu Nitu as Prosecutor General and Ioan Irimie as Chief-Prosecutor of DNA. President Traian Basescu, on the other hand, told the judges during the January 4 CSM meeting that, under article 134 of the Constitution, it was the Council that should propose to him the candidates for both positions, as a matter of fact even asking for their formal position in the matter on that occasion. It is the same CSM that, on November 22, issues a negative opinion on both nominations. The CSM opinion is, indeed, purely advisory and the president has the ultimate decision. Judge Cristian Danilet yesterday said he militates for ‘a bigger CSM role in the procedure (for the appointment of the prosecutor general and DNA chief – a/n): maybe we should have a binding rather than consultative opinion’.On the other hand, PSD Senator Toni Grebla said on RFI that the procedure for the selection of the prosecutor general and DNA chief should be started all over again. ‘The procedure is flawed. If I am the national football team coach, I am not going to run an ad in tomorrow’s newspaper tomorrow, inviting to the national stadium anyone who wishes to play as a member of the national team!’, realitatea.net quotes Grebla as having said.