Romanian Justice and Human Rights >>> Politization of key judicial institutions

Up to December 2004, with a 4-year break, Romania was lead by Ion Iliescu, a former important member of the Communist Party during the Ceausescu regime who after the revolution against the communists from 1989 became the founder of the Social Democratic Party (PSD).

During 2000-2004 the president of this party, Adrian Nastase, was the Prime Minister. PSD, the party that took over the communist legacy as well as many of the former communist activists, has dominated the political environment for the past 15 years.

In December 2004, following an electoral campaign during which he promised among other things a justice reform, Traian Basescu became the president, and appointed Calin Popescu Tariceanu, a member of the Liberal Party, as the Prime Minister.

At present, Romania is lead by a governmental coalition having the DA Alliance (Justice and Truth, in Romanian Dreptate si Adevar ) [formed by Liberal Party and Democratic Party] as its axis. The alliance has to cohabitate with the former PSD allies in order to form a fragile parliamentary majority. President Basescu considers the coalition as artificial and immoral.

Due to the influence still exercised by PSD upon the justice among others, and to the fact that the PSD leaders ordered the legal pursuit against Mr. GREGORIAN BIVOLARU, even now, 2 years after the “formal” change in the political power, Romania is not capable of guaranteeing him an fair trial ruled by impartial judges.

The only chance of a fair trial would have been his judgment after the accomplishment of the justice reform, a fact practically equivalent with placing the justice system outside the political influence of the former state leaders. This influence if emphasized by the fact that the judges of the High Court of Cassation and Justice and of the Constitutional Court belong to certain groups protecting the interests of the PSD.

There cannot be a fair trial in Romania due to the failure of the justice reform. Such a reform would have been possible to begin if new Parliamentary elections had been organized and in this way had granted the current political leaders a comfortable majority. However the resignation of the government was postponed due to the disastrous floods that Romania faced in July. Under the circumstances, the government has of course different priorities.