On Tuesday, prosecutor Bogdan Licu and the senator Iulia Scântei were appointed judges at the Constitutional Court by the Chamber of Deputies, respectively by the Senate. The two are appointed for a 9-year term. President Klaus Iohannis will also make an appointment for the Constitutional Court.
Bogdan Licu was appointed judge at the Constitutional Court after being proposed by PSD and received 208 votes, on Tuesday, in the plenary of the Chamber of Deputies. Licu will replace the current president of CCR, Valer Dorneanu.
Cristi Danileț, USR proposal, received 59 votes, and Ioan Sabău-Pop, proposed by AUR, 34 votes.
USR deputies announced they would notify the Constitutional Court regarding the decision of the Chamber of Deputies by which Bogdan Licu, “a plagiarist with at most mediocre training, is appointed judge at CCR, without respecting all constitutional and legal conditions”, according to a party press release.
“Political parties have recently preferred to make political appointments only ax handles. Unfortunately, today we see a strong contrast – you have a choice between original and copy, between original and plagiarism. We have a candidate supported by USR who based his entire career on training, study, grades obtained by exam and competition (…) A PSD candidate who had poor results in school both in high school and later , at an obscure college (…) It is very sad that such a candidacy comes from a support of an apolitical force, a force that is more related to the secret services, to the SRI, than to the political parties. This is a proof of the weakness of the state, of the weakness of the politicians and of the power that the SRI is increasingly illegitimately claiming”, said USR MP, Stelian Ion, a former Justice minister.
Iulia Scântei, endorsed by the National Liberal Party, was voted by the plenum of the Senate with 76 votes “for” and 34 “against”. Peter Ecsktein Kovacs, supported by the USR group, received 22 votes “for” and 88 “against” and Radu Ghidău, nominated by AUR, received 12 votes “for” and 98 “against”. Scântei will take over the CCR judge’s mandate after June 10. Iulia Scântei will replace Mona Pivniceru, whose constitutional judge term ends in June.
The appointment of the new judge to the CCR must be made at least one month before the end of the term of office of the predecessor magistrate.
The Constitutional Court consists of nine judges, appointed for a term of 9 years, which cannot be extended or renewed. Out of these, three are appointed by the Chamber of Deputies, three by the Senate and three by the President of Romania. The court is renewed by one third of the number of judges every 3 years.
Investigative journalist Emilia Sercan discloses Bogdan Licu’s poor education results
Journalist Emilia Șercan, notorious for her investigative reports on the politicians’ resumes and on their plagiarized papers, also revealed, on her Facebook page, new details from Bogdan Licu’s CV. More precisely, Licu’s high school diploma shows that he was a mediocre and sub-mediocre high school student, and also had poor results and grades as a student.
“Bogdan Licu graduated in the 11th grade at the Sanitary High School in Bucharest in 1986, in the profile of Sanitary – Pharmacy Laborer, which he finished in the summer of 1988. He passed the baccalaureate exam at the end of the 12th grade with the general average 7.00. He obtained a grade of 5 in Romanian, 6 in Chemistry, 8 in Biology and 9 in the practical test. The grades for the four years of study in high school were mediocre and sub-mediocre: 7.66 in the ninth grade, 7.25 in the tenth grade, 5.62 in the eleventh grade and 6.35 in the twelfth grade -a (n.r. average years of study: 6.72)”, says Emilia Șercan, who wonders, given the professional and academic career of Bogdan Licu, “who is, yet behind the appointment of Bogdan Licu to CCR? ”
During last week’s hearing in Parliament, Bogdan Licu said he took the low grades from college and his bachelor’s degree because he had to support his family, so it was an accident.