UNJR warns Kovesi to cease pressures on the Constitutional Court prior to pronouncement on the offence of abuse of office

The National Union of Judges of Romania (UNJR) has asked publicly on Monday the DNA chief prosecutor Laura Codruţa Kovesi (photo) and the opinion leaders to cease pressures on the Constitutional Court before the ruling on the constitutionality of abuse of office according to Law 78/2000.

“DNA chief prosecutor Laura Codruţa Kovesi’s statements on the decision of the CCR that a different ruling on the abuse of office than the one advocated by DNA would be ‘a cessation of fighting against corruption in Romania’ and that a signal the Romanian state would  give – it’s over, we’ve struggled enough against corruption, we no longer need to fight corruption, we don’t need to investigate these kind of deeds anymore – is a form of pressure on the Constitutional Court, inconsistent with the status of magistrate and with the principle of separation of powers. Based on this repeated statements through various means of mass communication, then amplified by various opinion leaders, the citizens are fed with the idea that allegedly the fight against corruption would cease, and they submitted petitions to ask CCR to decide on the way DNA want to,” a statement issued by UNJR on Monday reads.

The release points out that DNA has sent CCR a formal point of view, institutional, on the abuse of office, but the use of popular pressure on the Constitutional Court ‘is out of the democratic framework’.

“Asking the Constitutional Court to set aside the Constitution and not to consider the case it has been notified for, strictly through the primacy of the Constitution, means simply to abandon the rule of law and return to the totalitarian justice made in the public square based on public will, not under the law. The situation is worrying because, again, previous to a Constitutional Court decision with important implications for justice and social life, opinions are repeatedly expressed in public which are not based on the Constitution, but on opportunity,” the statement reads.

CCR has postponed for June 15 the debates on the objection of unconstitutionality regarding the criminalizing of abuse of office, objection raised in several files.