Sandu Demands a Review of the Vetting Mechanism: “Corruption Schemes Persists”

President Maia Sandu called on the Parliament, the Ministry of Justice, the Superior Council of Magistracy, and other relevant authorities to take measures to review the Vetting mechanism in order to expand the category of judges subject to an extraordinary review. The statement was made at a press conference in the context of draft law No. 333, which was adopted by Parliament yesterday and, among other things, provides for the addition of a new category to the list of assessment subjects, according to tv8.md. “I call on the Parliament, the Ministry of Justice, the Superior Council of Magistracy (SCM), and other relevant authorities to analyze the issue within the framework of a working group and urgently initiate measures to review the Vetting mechanism in order to expand the categories of judges subject to external extraordinary evaluation and/or accelerate the internal procedures of the SCM’s board in evaluating the performance of judges,” said Maia Sandu. According to the head of state, the delay in the court proceedings of numerous cases, especially high-profile ones, is one of the main problems of the judicial system. “When we started cleaning up the system, we hoped that the regular assessment would continue this process after the extraordinary assessment. However, we see that this is not enough (...) Corruption schemes in the judicial system have not disappeared,” Sandu emphasized. In this context, Maia Sandu welcomed the draft law adopted by the Parliament yesterday, which stipulates that judges of the specialized anticorruption panel of the Chisinau Court, as well as candidates for the position of judge in this panel, will be subject to external evaluation. The initiative primarily concerns judges who have been handling corruption cases since 2017. Additionally, the bill extends the external evaluation of judges and prosecutors until August 31, 2026.