Is #Romania’s legal system controlled by secret agents?

A Judge in Bucharest recently told me a rather sensational story: Romania’s secret intelligence agency (the SRI) have infiltrated the legal system.- writes Rupert Wolfe Murray.   Romania has been an EU member state since 2007, and one of the conditions of membership is the independence of the judiciary.
Judge Girbovan explained: "Some media revealed now that, in the past years, the SRI created different “academies” where they educated many politicians or even key people from the judiciary field.These former SRI students are now in CSM, Parliament, Government, everywhere. We got to a point where the separation of powers in Romania must be seriously questioned. We requested the name of the magistrates who studied to the SRI’s academy, but the request was rejected that the information is not for the public interest."
Any involvement of the SRI in court proceedings is illegal under Romanian law and has a terrible precedent: under Communism the dreaded Securitate (security service) had a “penal division” that was used to carry out appalling abuses under the guise of criminal investigations.

The background to this story is Romania’s powerful anti-corruption drive, a process that took a long time to get going but is becoming increasingly powerful. The National Anti-Corruption Directive (DNA in Romanian) is credited with indicting over 1,250 convictions in 2015 – including the former Prime Minister, former Ministers, Members of Parliament, mayors, judges and prosecutors.
The Anti-Corruption Directive is popular in Romania and also in the region: all the countries of Central and Eastern Europe are fed up with corrupt politicians, and many of them look to Romania as the one nation that is making good progress in this regard. The European Commission and the USA keep Romania under constant pressure to maintain the rate of convictions.
But is the anti-corruption drive getting out of control? Does the alleged interference of the secret intelligence agency undermine the separation of powers that is a bedrock of democracy? Are the Romanian politicians and media afraid to confront the increasingly powerful secret police? Are the EU and the US turning a blind eye?
I asked Judge Girbovan if she had put this issue to the Romanian media and she said “I speak about these issues publicly, but in Romania very few want to talk about them seriously... some of the opinion shapers from the media are claiming that it is OK to have undercover agents among the magistrates, because that is a way to fight corruption.”
What about the institution responsible for the independence of the judiciary? The Superior Council of Magistracy, which is supposed to “guarantee the independence of the judiciary” have, according to Judge Girbovan, “done everything in its power to shut this subject down. Every request we sent them, to take a stand and defend the independence of the judiciary from the influence or involvement of the intelligence agencies, was rejected.”
Perhaps the most shocking evidence that Judge Girbovan presented was a statement by SRI General Dumitru Dumbrava who said the courts are a “tactical field” for the SRI intelligence agency and that they profile all the judges. Public comments have also been made by senior SRI staffers to suggest that all Romania’s judges are “corruptible” and therefore suspect. When Judge Girbovan presented these statements to the Superior Council of Magistrates the institution concluded that they “are not affecting the independence of the judiciary.”
What about the EU?
Having got nowhere in her home country, Judge Girbovan wrote to Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission. She asked The Commission to investigate “the unlawful involvement of the Romanian Intelligence Services (SRI) in the judiciary…These unresolved issues are a threat to the rule of law and democracy in Romania. They are also undermining the independence of the judiciary and the fight against corruption, creating the premise for severe human rights violations.”
The letter also pointed out that since 2004, the Supreme Council of National Defence, the body responsible for Romania’s national security, has failed to verify the annual affidavits “by judges and prosecutors, under the penalty of perjury, that they are not operative agents, inclusively undercover, informants or collaborators of the secret intelligence services.”
Girbovan’s letter to The Commission was dated 21st January 2016 and she is still waiting for a reply. Less than a week later the European Commission issued their annual report on Romania’s progress as an EU member state. The report praises Romania’s “key judicial and integrity institutions to address high-level corruption and the increased professionalism in the judicial system as a whole.”
The report blandly states that the “respect for the independence of the judiciary are essential,” and that the Superior Council of Magistracy has “continued in 2015 to defend the independence of justice.” There is no mention in the document about the interference of the intelligence agencies in the legal system.
Jean-Claude Junckers should have a good rummage through his inbox as the letter from Judge Girbovan contains some disturbing news from an EU member state. In particular, how the SRI intelligence agency has managed to avoid the law and spread its tentacles throughout the legal system. The key to understanding this is the Supreme Council of National Defence (CSAT) which, according to Girbovan’s letter “passed some orders granting SRI certain competence in the judiciary process. Nobody knows exactly what this intelligence agency is doing in courts or among the magistrates because the CSAT orders are classified.”

Rupert Wolfe Murray spent more than 15 years in Romania as a journalist and aid worker.

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