President of the Senate notifyed the Constitutional Court on a judicial conflict between the Government and DNA

Thursday, February 9, 2017 Share

The President of the Senate, Calin Popescu-Tariceanu, decided to notify the Constitutional Court in order to find the existence of a judicial conflict of a constitutional nature between the Government of Romania and the Public Ministry, through the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA).



"The President of the Senate, Calin Popescu-Tariceanu, decided to notify the Constitutional Court of Romania [CCR], based on the provisions of art. 146 let. e) in the Constitution of Romania, in order to find the existence of a judicial conflict of a constitutional nature between the Government of Romania, on the one hand, the Public Ministry, through the National Anticorruption Directorate, a structure of the judicial authority, on the other hand. The judicial conflict of a constitutional nature which the President of the Senate brings into CCR's attention was generated by the DNA prosecutors' demarches, consisting of investigating the circumstances in which the draft of the Emergency Ordinance referring to amendment and addition of the Criminal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure was drawn up, which created institutional blockings," shows a press release of the Senate, sent on Wednesday.



Calin Popescu-Tariceanu believes that, proceeding on investigating the opportuneness, circumstances, and context of drawing up the normative act, "representatives of the Public Ministry usurped some of the Government's competencies, through the Justice Ministry, which led to the appearance of the current judicial conflict of a constitutional nature, in the sense of the CCR decisions."



"GEO No. 13/2017 approaches a topic of criminal policy of the Romanian state, or the measures of criminal policy are found exclusively in the competency of Parliament and Government, other public authorities, including the judicial authority, can express points of views on this matter, can and must be consulted, but cannot have the interference power, discretionary interference, including criminal investigation, nor of Parliament's structures, nor the Government's structures," the notification sent to the CCR mentions.



At the end of the notification addressed to the CCR, the President of the Senate requests that decision on which the Court will be pronounced unblock the conflict, "ruling that, in the future, the prosecution bodies cannot investigate the opportunneness of drawing up normative acts." </s> The President of the Senate, Calin Popescu-Tariceanu, decided to notify the Constitutional Court in order to find the existence of a judicial conflict of a constitutional nature between the Government of Romania and the Public Ministry, through the National Anticorruption Directorate . "The President of the Senate, Calin Popescu-Tariceanu, decided to notify the Constitutional Court of Romania [CCR], based on the provisions of art.

Start the conversation, or Read more at Nine O'Clock. </s> JusMin Toader announces move to axe anti-corruption head Laura Codruta Kovesi

Friday, February 23, 2018 Share

Minister of Justice Tudorel Toader announced on Thursday that he will start procedures for removing from office Chief Prosecutor of the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) Laura Codruta Kovesi.

Minister Tudorel said that the making of the report on the managerial activity of the National Anti-corruption Directorate (DNA) was carried out based on the very broad debates in the public space in the last year, debates that have "deeply" divided the public opinion.



"The realization of this report is completed based on the debates that have gotten a special amplitude in the public space in the last year, (...) that have deeply divided the public opinion and have raised personal attacks at unprecedented odds in the recent history of Romania (...), that have polarised the attention of the European and international forums on Romania, have unleashed evaluation mechanisms that have never before been used against Romania (...), by even threatening the rule of law," said Toader.

He added that Chief Prosecutor of the National Anti-corruption Directorate (DNA) Laura Codruta Kovesi had "an excessively authoritarian behaviour" when she "personally" supervised the investigation related to OUG 13/2017.

According to him, an unprecedented situation within the relations between public authorities in Romania have been recorded in 2017, in which the National Anti-corruption Directorate (DNA) was sanctioned by the Constitutional Court for disloyal behaviour.



"First of all, we retained an unprecedented situation within relations between public authorities in Romania. I repeat, an unprecedented situation of the public authorities' relations. In only one year, 2017, three constitutional legal conflicts were recorded, conflicts that led to the National Anti-corruption Directorate, through its leadership, being summoned in front of the constitutional administrative court. Three legal conflicts of a constitutional nature, in which the Constitutional Court firmly detailed the competency of the National Anti-corruption Directorate, in two of these [conflicts - ed.n.] sanctioning the disloyal behaviour, the unconstitutional behaviour of the Chief Prosecutor of the National Anti-corruption Directorate," Toader told a press conference.



The Justice minister further said that in less than a year, the DNA was summoned by the Constitutional Court for two more conflicts of a constitutional nature.



"I have showed through the activity report of the DNA's Chief Prosecutor that, per se, the recording of a single legal conflict of a constitutional nature does not carry the ability to determine the removal from office of the head of the institution that triggered the conflict. I was saying this in March 2017. Conducts counter to the Constitution, isolated, can be corrected, this actually being the reason for constitutionally enshrining an adequate instrument and properly establishing the competency of the Constitutional court, of solving this conflict. The conclusions are obviously different, when the Constitution infringement exceeds the competency limits provided for by the Constitution and the law, when the breaches become systematic. In less than half a year from the publication of the decision no 68 from 2017, the National Anti-corruption Directorate, through its leadership, was again called in front of the Constitutional Court, for two more conflicts of a constitutional nature," Toader specified.

Romania’s General Prosecutor Augustin Lazar expressed his support for Kovesi, saying there were no legal grounds to dismiss her.

“The justice minister once again abandoned his responsibility as minister in order to serve political interests,” said Romania Platform 100, a non-governmental group headed by former Premier Dacian Ciolos.

The country’s ruling Social Democrats tried a year ago to decriminalize several corruption offences by emergency decree, leading to its largest street protests in decades.

A judicial overhaul approved by the ruling coalition late last year - which was criticized by the president, thousands of magistrates, the European Commission and the U.S. State Department - is back in parliament after the Constitutional Court ruled some of its provisions were unconstitutional.

DNA has investigated lawmakers, ministers, mayors, magistrates and businessmen in recent years, exposing conflicts of interest, abuse of power, fraud and the award of state contracts in exchange for bribes.

It has sent over 70 members of parliament to trial since 2006. The speakers of parliament’s lower house and senate are both currently on trial in separate cases.

In a news conference last week, Kovesi defended DNA against attacks by some of those currently on trial, saying she would have no reason to resign if she was asked to.

“This attack isn’t about Kovesi, it is about the prosecutors who have done their job. It aims to make the Romanian state kneel, humiliate society and the Romanian people,” she said.

Hundreds of protesters gathered outside government headquarters following Toader’s news conference, chanting “You’re not getting away with it”.

More were joining them and demonstrations also broke out in at least three other cities, according to social media postings by participants.

“In case there were people doubting the justice minister was not a political actor, this evening has clarified that,” said Sergiu Miscoiu, political science professor at Babes-Bolyai University. </s> Romania’s Presidential Administration reacted to the justice minister’s request on revoking the chief prosecutor of the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) saying that its specialists will analyze the minister’s report.

“Due to the lack of clarity in presenting the report on DNA’s management and considering that the evaluation of DNA’s activity and management by Romania’s President differs from the one presented by the justice minister, a thorough analysis of this document is needed, which will be made by the specialized department within the Presidential Administration,” reads the Presidency’s statement.

President Klaus Iohannis has repeatedly said he was satisfied with DNA’s activity and its management and maintains this point of view, according to the same statement.

“Romania’s President Klaus Iohannis will use all of his constitutional prerogatives to ensure the functioning of an independent justice and the rule of law consolidation,” the Presidency’s statement concluded.

Romania’s general prosecutor Augustin Lazar also expressed his support for DNA chief Laura Codruta Kovesi after the justice minister’s announcement saying that there is no legal reason for revoking her.

Romania’s justice minister asks for the dismissal of the chief anticorruption prosecutor

Chief antigraft prosecutor dismisses media scandal: This attack is aimed at subduing the Romanian state </s> Romania’s justice minister Tudorel Toader announced he started the procedure to revoke the chief prosecutor of the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) Laura Codruta Kovesi.

He presented a 36-page report on the DNA chief’s activity during an 80-minute press briefing. The report included 20 “acts and facts” related to the DNA chief prosecutor’s activity, all of them negative. Some of them were based on the Constitutional Court’s decisions on the conflicts between the DNA and the Parliament and Government. Others were based on media reports and interviews that Kovesi gave to the local and international media. Tudorel Toader said that Kovesi’s statements in these interviews damaged Romania’s image abroad.

The justice minister criticised the DNA chief prosecutor for her authoritarian management style and her involvement in investigations, for trying to get convictions at any price, for the higher number of defendants acquitted following DNA investigations and the higher costs of DNA investigations, and for delaying the investigations in some cases. However, he didn’t answer the journalists’ request for examples based on which he formulated these critics.

At the end of his presentations, Tudorel Toader acknowledged DNA’s results in fighting corruption and said the fight against corruption should continue in Romania. However, he added that the DNA must continue to function legally and that the institution does not identify with its chief prosecutor, whose actions “have demonstrated that they can endanger the very institution that she has been managing”.

In the end, he summed his critics on Kovesi’s activity in several words: “excess of authority, discretionary behaviour, defying the Parliament, challenging the Constitutional Court’s decisions and authority”.

“For these acts and facts that are intolerable in a rule of law, I start the procedure to revoke the DNA chief prosecutor,” Toader concluded.

The report will be sent to the Superior Magistracy Council (CSM) and to President Klaus Iohannis, the only one who has the authority to revoke the DNA chief. President Iohannis said last week that he was satisfied with DNA’s activity and that he saw no reasons to revoke the DNA chief.

The justice minister started presenting his report on the management of the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) at 18:00. He said the report was not an evaluation of DNA’s activity, which would be presented to the Parliament together with the reports on the activity of the Public Ministry and the Anti-Organized Crime Directorate – DIICOT.

He added that the report he would present was strictly on the activity of DNA’s management. The report has 36 pages and the minister warned the journalists it would take a while for him to present it.

He said the conclusions of the report were based on 20 acts and facts related to the DNA chief’s activity between February 2017 and February 2018.

The justice minister’s report will also be published on the Justice Ministry’s website after his presentation. </s> National Union of Judges in Romania (UNJR) publicly demands to the Chief-Prosecutor of the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA), Laura Codruta Kovesi, as well as to the opinion leaders, to cease pressure on the Constitutional Court before deciding on the constitutionality of the abuse of office provided by the Law no.78/2000, shows a press release issued by UNJR.

“DNA Chief-Prosecutor Laura Codruta Kovesi’s statements according to which a CCR decision on the abuse of office in a different way than the one supported by DNA would be ‘a cessation of the anticorruption fight in Romania’ and ‘a signal that the Romanian state gives: «That’s it, we had enough fight against corruption, we don’t have to fight against corruption anymore, we don’t have to investigate this kind of deeds anymore»”, is a form of pressure on the Constitutional Court which is inconsistent with the magistrate status and with the principle of separation of powers.

As a result of the expansion of this kind of messages through the opinion-makers and the media, citizens have begun to make petitions “to ask CCR to decide in the way that DNA wants”, which is “an inconsistency with the democratic framework” mentions the UNJR press release.

National Union of Judges in Romania also expresses its concern about abandoning the rule of law and establishing the totalitarian Justice:

“Asking Constitutional Court to set aside Constitution and not to examine the case submitted to it through the primacy of the Constitution, simply means to abandon the rule of law and to restore the totalitarian Justice made in the public square, not according to the law, but to the people’s will, claim the judges.

(…) Romania is a constitutional democracy, and anyone who asserts, directly or indirectly, that anticorruption fight allows the violation of the Constitution, undermines the rule of law and sabotages the legitimacy of the fight against corruption itself.”

“We are very concerned about the fact that people are more and more inoculated with the idea that, by the decisions it takes, Constitutional Court would become an enemy of the anticorruption fight, an enemy of the people. (…) In each state where there was an attempt to breach rule of law, the first attacked institution was the Constitutional Court, exactly because its fundamental role it plays in a democracy” stated Judge Dana Girbovan (photo), UNJR President.

National Union of Judges reiterates the call, also made in the past, to the members of the three powers and to the press, to immediately cease any kind of pressure on the Constitutional Court ad to respect the supremacy of the Constitution in a state of law. </s> The European Commission (EC) also reacted to the Romanian justice minister’s request to revoke the chief prosecutor of the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA), saying that it is interested to see how things will evolve in this case.

“The Commission is watching with caution and concern the latest developments. The independence of the judiciary in Romania and its ability to fight corruption effectively are fundamental elements for a strong Romania within the EU, as the EC president and first vice-president reminded in their joint statement last month. The Commission will follow the developments in the proceedings initiated against the DNA chief,” the EC said in a press release sent to local Digi24.

The Commission also said that, in all the previous reports made under the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM), the fact that “DNA has maintained its evolution despite intense pressure has been seen as a sign of resistance.”

The justice minister Tudorel Toader announced on Thursday evening, February 22, his decision to start the procedure to revoke the DNA chief prosecutor Laura Codruta Kovesi. He presented the reasons for this decision in an 80-minute press conference. All the conclusions are included in a 36-page report, which the minister said it would be published on the Justice Ministry’s website. However, the ministry’s website couldn’t be accessed after the minister’s conference, and was still down when this news was published.

The Presidential Administration reacted to the justice minister’s decision later the same evening, saying the president’s evaluation of the DNA’s management differs from that presented by the justice minister, and that it would analyze the justice minister’s report.

On Friday, when he was in Brussels for an informal meeting of the European Council, president Klaus Iohannis told journalists that the report presented by the justice minister lacked clarity and rationality. Also, he once again said that he sees no reasons to dismiss the DNA head. However, he also added that the report didn’t arrive at the Presidential Administration, and that he would present a more detailed opinion after reviewing the document.

Laudra Codruta Kovesi also reacted on Friday morning to the justice minister’s statements, saying she will “follow the legal procedure and be present, whenever needed, to answer, point by point, to all statements presented by the justice minister.” </s> Laura Codruta Kovesi, the chief prosecutor of the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA), said she will “follow the legal procedure and be present, whenever needed, to answer, point by point, to all statements presented by the justice minister.”

Kovesi is reacting to requests for a point of view after the justice minister, Tudorel Toader, announced he started the procedure to revoke her from her post.

Yesterday, February 22, Toader presented a 36-page report on the DNA chief’s activity. The report included 20 “acts and facts” related to the activity of the DNA’s chief prosecutor, all of them negative. He criticized the DNA head for her authoritarian management style and her involvement in investigations, and for trying to get convictions at any price, among other things.

In a two-hour press conference held last week, Kovesi tackled many of the points raised by minister Toader. The DNA head said that the institution had always taken action when some of its prosecutors didn’t follow the law and internal procedures and that the recent media scandal about anticorruption prosecutors allegedly fabricating evidence is aimed at discrediting the prosecutors and weakening the people’s trust in the justice system.

Meanwhile, the Presidential Administration said the President’s evaluation of the DNA’s management differs from that presented by the justice minister, and that it would analyze the justice minister’s report. President Klaus Iohannis has repeatedly said he was satisfied with DNA’s activity and its management and maintains this point of view.

Romania’s general prosecutor Augustin Lazar also expressed his support for DNA chief Laura Codruta Kovesi after the justice minister’s announcement, saying that there was no legal reason for revoking her. </s> The Constitutional Court of Romania (CCR) established on Wednesday that there is no legal conflict of a constitutional nature between state powers following the adoption of the government emergency ordinance for the modification of the Criminal Codes.

CCR President Valer Dorneanu announced at the end of the Wednesday meeting that it was found that there is no conflict neither between the judicial authority and the Government, nor between Parliament and the Government.

“In respect to the nature of the conflict between Parliament and Government it has been said that in this case the Government assumed a legislating power not stated in the Constitution and exaggerated in using the emergency ordinance. It is true that, according to the separation of powers principle, Parliament is the one having the legislating sovereignty and the competence to issue primary organic laws. The Government usually hasn’t such a competence. Exceptionally, however, even under the Constitution (…), the Government can be delegated by the legislature to issue simple or emergency ordinances. (…) In this respect, there is not conflict, because the Government has acted legally within its competence area of issuing ordinances,” the CCR head said.

Previously, he had pointed out that the repeal of GEO No 13/2017 could not stop the ongoing constitutional process.

“Several times, the Constitutional Court has pronounced even in respect to some conflicts notified by the former Ponta Government. Dropping or repealing a normative act cannot stop us from its constitutional process. Therefore, the GEO 13 abrogation has no relevance. This abrogation can have consequences tomorrow, when we judge the ordinance constitutionality,” Dorneanu maintained.

The CCR President underscored that not any conflict between authorities meets the condition of a legal conflict of a constitutional nature, but only when a side or the sides assume powers, duties, competencies in the activity area of the other authority or when an authority declines its competence, doesn’t exercise its role, according to its duties, or refuses to fulfill its role.

The Constitutional Court of Romania has discussed the requests of President Klaus Iohannis and Superior Council of Magistracy (CSM) head Mariana Ghena, on finding a conflict between state powers following the adoption of the government emergency ordinance for the modification of the Criminal Codes.
President of the Senate Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu notifies the Constitutional Court claiming a judicial conflict of a constitutional nature between the Government of Romania and the Public Ministry, through the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA).