CSM Vicepresident: Romania, closer to a “paradise of criminals” than the rule of law

Vice-president of the Supreme Council of Magistrates (CSM) Claudiu Sandu on Tuesday cautioned against several problems facing the Romanian judicial system, arguing that Romania is closer to a "crime paradise" rather than to a state governed by the rule of law.Attending on Tuesday the presentation of the 2024 activity report of the Prosecutor's Office attached to the High Court of Cassation and Justice, Sandu said that "the lifting of the Verification and Control Mechanism and the cheerful back-patting that followed cannot hide a cold-fact reality. The legislative changes made, certain decisions of the Constitutional Court, even certain decisions of the High Court of Cassation and Justice, the harassment over time of the courageous magistrates, the removal of meritocracy as a promotion principle in the judiciary have led Romania, from my point of view, to being closer to a crime paradise rather than to a state of law. This is a reality we, prosecutors, feel every day," Sandu declared.According to him, over the last seven to eight years, the judicial system has gone through several "experimental" stages ranging from the cancellation of "legally administered" evidence to changes in practice that have "completely disrupted" the prosecutors' work and resulting in indictments that were "perfectly good until a few days ago to being voidable all of a sudden.""The major source for this disruption of judicial practice has, however, a rather precarious quality of the legislation, and the example that best illustrates this reality is tax evasion. Looking at the stocktaking report presented by the Prosecutor General's Office, I noticed a rather drastic decrease in the number of finalized tax evasion cases, and this is no surprise. If we look at the penalties carried by tax evasion, we see that the legislator considered it to be a very serious crime, and posing a serious social danger. However, they left it to the latitude of the Tax Authority to notify the judicial bodies, putting both the honest businessman and the tax evader on the same level, which, from my point of view - as someone who has put together several indictment cases - is not correct. Such changes, considered modern at that time, only create a lever whereby very large amounts are being syphoned from the state budget to tax havens, and I think we are all aware that we will never recover them," explained the CSM vice-president.President of the supreme court Corina Corbu replied that the judge has the final say in the interpretation and enforcement of the law, adding that if the judges have already outlined a jurisprudence, this should be followed regardless of whether it pleases or displeases anyone."If judicial practice changes, it is natural for this to happen because the world around us evolves. If judges have already outlined a jurisprudence, in one sense or another, it must be followed regardless of whether this satisfies or dissatisfies, regardless of whether this may lead to the closure of certain cases," Corina Corbu explained.