Judges and prosecutors in Romania on Thursday asked the parliamentary committee on SRI control in a letter to urge the Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI) to publicly clarify if statements made by intelligence general Dumitru Dumbrava, that SRI is involved in the Judiciary, represent the institution’s official position or just his personal opinion, reads a press release of the National Union of Judges in Romania (UNJR).
The letter’s signers ask the committee to make a prompt analysis of the way that SRI is acting in a field exclusively reserved for courts and to bring the report into the open.
SRI general Dumitru Dumbrava told a recent interview that at present the Romanian Intelligence Service “is keeping its attention until the final ruling” in the corruption files. “This procedure when we are connected with prosecutors, police officers, judges and other similar institutions brought some aspects related to the judiciary’s corruption to the light, to some extents that should be tolerated but neither exaggerated (…) Let’s not forget that, first and foremost, prosecutors are the one who are investigating various corruption crimes committed by magistrates, and other judges are convicting them,” general Dumbrava told the interview, among others.
“General Dumbrava’s statements unveil a system that, pretending to watch over respecting the human rights and the fight against corruption, is actually brutally breaking these fundamental rights,” reads the judges’ press release.
“The magistrates’ Securitate-like surveillance to prevent potential corruption deeds has a strong effect of intimidation, pressure and discredit of the judges and prosecutors”, UNJR says.
The union representing the Romanian judges argues that Dumbrava statements’ represent a clear proof that SRI is breaking the legal provisions, as both the Criminal procedure code and SRI law clearly stipulate that the intelligence service is only offering support in criminal cases and doesn’t undergo any investigations
“Any person who fell in a suit in court can say, based on what general Dumbrava pointed out, that his/her failure happened not due to the evidence, but to SRI’s immixture.