Conflict escalates between JusMin Ana Birchall and CSM Head Lia Savonea

Justice Minister Ana Birchall and the Head of the Superior Council of Magistracy, Lia Savonea have embarked on a row over justice control.

After CSM Head Lia Savonea had notified the Constitutional Court over a constitutional conflict with the Justice minister, Ana Birchall replied she will  act “legally and constitutionally”.

JusMin says she had done nothing illegal and that all that she did was to observe the law.

Lia Savonea announced on Tuesdya night she is notifying CCR over the minister’s actions, accusing Birchall of “interfering in the activity of the prosecutors” and “undermining the CSM authority”.

Minister Birchall fired back on Wednesday, accusing CSM of being “too preoccupied with amending the Law on the National Integrity Agency”, instead of delivering the long-expected stances on the GRECO and CVM reports.

“We have long expected for a CSM stance, but it seems the Council was too preoccupied with amending the ANI Law, thus usurping the Justice Ministry’s powers and sending its stand directly to the Senate’s Committee. I publicly requested for this stance, it is my duty as a minister of Justice to defend the ministry’s powers and reputation. I ask CSM again to immediately provide this analysis. If not, I repeat, I will release the analysis that I have conducted based on the stances provided by the justice institutions and associations”, Birchall stated.

According to the amendments operated on the ANI Law, the judges from the CSM ask that the incomes of the judges’ partners to be kept secret, while the wealth of the couples of judges who have separate properties and goods should not be checked anymore.

It seems that CSM Head, Lia Savonea is a direct beneficiary of these amendments, after the integrity inspectors from ANI had checked her wealth and discovered huge incomes and transactions on her name and her husband’s.

According to ANI, Lia Savonea and her husband own two houses, in Chiajna and Alba, two cars and jewels worth EUR 14,000, as well as several plots of lands in Ilfov and Alba.

Lia Savonea’s husband, lawyer Mihai Savonea, sold 7 houses and two cars during 2017-2018, gaining around EUR 600,000 from these transactions.