A new scandal on the Romanian judiciary’s frontline has peered up on Monday following disclosures in the mass media.
Journalist Dan Andronic claims in an article on evz.ro that the archive of SIPA, judiciary’s former intelligence service, would have been copied while being inventorized by the committee designated by former Justice minister Monica Macovei. Judge Cristi Danilet and anti-corruption prosecutor Paul Dumitriu were members in the committee.
Andronic says he has consulted several documents and talked to more people in the judiciary system and found out that the first inventory committee for the SIPA archive had been set up during Monica Macovei’s office as Justice minister in March and has been operational by 2016 end. The committee had the role of arranging the archive on archivistic criteria.
“Only that those criteria meant destroying the catalogue system that was used for such archives as SIPA and applying some other inventory criteria that made any search possible. Subsequently, we found out that this committee hasn’t fully fulfilled its duties for, after being arranged, while the second obligation was being ignored, which clearly said that these documents must be delivered to the National Archives and the national intelligence institutions,” Andronic wrote.
Thereby, a second committee was set up in 2007, with judge Cristi Danilet and prosecutor Paul Dumitriu as members. Andronic claims that, based on the consulted documents and statements, one of the two, Cristi Danilet, would have been involved in copying and destroying the archive. The EVZ journalist also says that the two magistrates didn’t do the recordings of proceedings or the reports on the SIPA archive, claiming they would have avoided leaving any track.
Dan Andronic also quoted sources stating that 12-14 files have been stolen, related to some magistrates who later on would have climbed the promotional ladder up to the top.
Moreover, the journalist claims that in the year when the documents have been allegedly stolen, the Romanian Intelligence Service’s monitoring cameras have not been operational for three months.
Justice minister Tudorel Toader stated on Monday that the persons who copied the SIPA archive must be taken accountable if journalist Andronic’s statements prove to be true, while the Senate Speaker Calin Popescu Tariceanu suggested that an inquiry committee should be set up within the Justice Ministry to probe into the SIPA archive affair.
On the other hand, PSD chairman Liviu Dragnea took the opportunity amid the SIPA scandal to warn the Justice Minister about his fragile position in the Government. Dragnea stated that the JusMin is not taking actions to disclose the SIPA archive, his confidence in Tudorel Toader “will get near zero”.
What do the incriminated persons say?
Judge Cristi Danilet said he hasn’t amended, copied or disclosed any information contained in the SIPA documents. Moreover, he notified the Prosecutor’s Office upon the High Court of Cassation and Justice over Andronic’s disclosures.
“I haven’t copied, amended or disclosed any information contained in the SIPA archives. Monica Macovei is the one who disbanded SIPA and had no information about magistrates. Soon after taking over mandate as Justice minister in December 2004, Monica Macovei appointed a prosecutor at the helm of the DGPA (former SIPA) and ordered that the information collection about magistrates should be stopped. The activity of SIPA has restricted only to collecting information related to the penitentiary system. The new DGPA director presented a report in the Parliament’s special committees on the activity of this institution,” Danilet replied on his blog.
In her turn, ex-JusMin, MEP Monica Macovei, says she hasn’t received any document from the SIPA archive.
“I haven’t received any file from the SIPA archive. I haven’t copied any file from SIPA archive. I haven’t stolen or destroyed any file from SIPA. I had no information about judges or prosecutors from the SIPA files. I have decided to disband this secret service, as there was information in the public space that abuses used to be made there.The justice system didn’t need any secret service. I decided to disband SIPA and ordered that its archive should be taken on inventory and delivered to the Penitentiary Administration. I was the only minister who decided to disband a secret service,” Macovei told a press release.