“Hiding the Traces”: Authorities Hastily Whitewash the Justice Reform Record

Christian RUSSU

The final stage of the justice sector transformations culminates with the destruction of evidence of work done by the reformers, with no chance to verify or challenge it

The other day, the public was disturbed by news from the long-suffering justice system, which the authorities continue to subject to the ‘European reform’. On 26 September, many readers of the Official Monitor were surprised to find out that on 13 September deputies had adopted in the third reading amendments to the laws on external evaluation of judges and prosecutors. In particular, they provide for the destruction of all information collected by the evaluation commissions in the course of their work, rather than the storage in the state archives so that next generations of politicians have an example of strong-willed and exemplary behavior of reformers. Subject to the caveat that firstly a hard copy is submitted to the relevant body depending on the status of the candidates. In the case of judges – to the Superior Council of Magistracy, in the case of prosecutors – to the Superior Council of Prosecutors, respectively. The scandalous commissions that carried out the notorious ‘pre-vetting’ and ‘vetting’ have only a few months left to operate, and no one will ever hear from them again. Thus, the question of what to do with all this dirt became as serious as possible. The regulations on the work of the commissions initially included a clause on some kind of rules for storing information about the subjects under evaluation, but few people saw it, and even fewer controlled its implementation. Now, the plan is allegedly to copy all this information and hand over to the SCM and SCP, liquidating the originals. But there are nuances. Firstly, these bodies already had materials on each judge under consideration, i.e. the remaining archives can be destroyed and the law will not be violated. Secondly, it should be recalled that former civil society representatives appointed to the local government structures will store the vetting files of judges and prosecutors who ‘surprisingly’ passed through the filter of the commission without any difficulties. It is hard to believe that the proxies of the authorities from the Legal Resources Centre of Moldova (CRJM) will keep the case files of such undesirable persons as Alexei Panis, who were deliberately framed in order to exclude them from the system. The surprise and indignation of the observers is rather natural, as the new amendments were criticized by legal experts and opposition MPs back in the summer. At that time, their author, PAS member Vasile Gradinaru, insisted that both the SCP and the SCM should destroy all the materials of the commissions’ work “taking into account the exclusiveness of the evaluation act itself and the inadmissibility of the subsequent use of this information for unfair purposes”. But, most likely, the true ambitions were far from noble and consisted only in the desire to make the verification of the work of the evaluation commissions impossible in the future. Simply put, no one will ever be able to shed light on what documents were at the disposal of the commissioners, how they were obtained, and therefore there would be no one and no reason to hold liable. Possible appeals of failed judges and prosecutors to the ECHR will lie idle for years due to the impossibility of data authenticating. There is no need to even look for political motives in this maneuver of the ruling party, they are more than obvious. It is funny that given the public discontent, the PAS promised to remove the scandalous wording, allowing the “reformers” to hide all traces of their illegal activities. But those who watched the parliamentary session on 13 September online could make sure that this issue was not even discussed by the deputies, while the law was both passed and signed by the president. We can say that the regime has once again excelled the former puppeteer Vlad Pahotniuc, who at least revealed what “acts of state importance” were executed behind closed doors. However, despite the de facto impotence of the parliamentary opposition, which has permanent access to the session hall of the parliament, evidence of abuse and political corruption of the authorities in the justice system surface themselves. Thus, one of the active minions of the PAS in suppressing the independence of justice got spotted when trying to transfer 145 thousand euros to her daughter in Austria. This is about Nina Cernat, a judge and recently retired member of the Superior Council of the Magistracy. It was she who promoted the interests of the “reformers” by preventing the judges from rallying to defend their positions last spring when the external evaluation procedure was launched. This lady, as the SCM acting chair, promoted the interests of the ruling party in building the new composition of the body, asked the Parliament represented by Igor Grosu to increase the salaries of magistrates, and then resigned honorably, politely refusing to undergo the evaluation procedure in person. We must admit that many other judges and prosecutors refused to undergo ‘vetting’ and/or ‘pre-vetting’. Of course, no one paid them informal severance payments like Nina Cernat. The ordinary justice officials, witnessing the examples of their “failed” colleagues, found it hopeless to take part in an execution, the results of which depended solely on loyalty to the ruling regime. The bottom line is a formally completed reform of justice with new self-government structures and almost “sterilized” prosecutor’s offices. This fact will be obviously exploited while preparing reports for European partners. But the authorities are in no hurry to boast about their attainment at every corner, despite the height of the election campaign. At first glance it’s paradoxical, but quite logical: it would be weird to brag about success when the justice sector is virtually completely paralyzed, which is clear to almost all citizens. Most of them do not even need to read in the media the complaints of the heads of certain judicial or prosecutorial structures about mass dismissals of employees; their own experience of applying to Moldovan courts is more than enough. And the terms of case-handling are stretched for years because of the acute personnel shortage; court appointments are made several years in advance. As a result, the judicial way of solving problems looks unpromising for people. This context gives new impetus to the corruption in the justice sector, and the warnings of Laura Kovesi, the European prosecutor who recently visited us, are now perceived in a different way.