Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
07BUCHAREST574
2007-05-21 04:31:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Bucharest
Cable title:  

FALSE START: JUSTICE MINISTER ATTEMPTS TO DISMISS

Tags:  PREL PGOV KJUS KCOR RO 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXRO0849
PP RUEHDBU RUEHFL RUEHKW RUEHLA RUEHROV RUEHSR
DE RUEHBM #0574/01 1410431
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 210431Z MAY 07
FM AMEMBASSY BUCHAREST
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 6661
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RUEAWJA/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHDC
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 BUCHAREST 000574 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR EUR/NCE AARON JENSEN

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/18/2017
TAGS: PREL PGOV KJUS KCOR RO
SUBJECT: FALSE START: JUSTICE MINISTER ATTEMPTS TO DISMISS
SENIOR ANTICORRUPTION PROSECUTOR BLOCKED FOR NOW

REF: A) BUCHAREST 556 B) BUCHAREST 491 C) BUCHAREST 469

Classified By: DCM Mark Taplin for reasons 1.4(b) and (d).

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 BUCHAREST 000574

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR EUR/NCE AARON JENSEN

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/18/2017
TAGS: PREL PGOV KJUS KCOR RO
SUBJECT: FALSE START: JUSTICE MINISTER ATTEMPTS TO DISMISS
SENIOR ANTICORRUPTION PROSECUTOR BLOCKED FOR NOW

REF: A) BUCHAREST 556 B) BUCHAREST 491 C) BUCHAREST 469

Classified By: DCM Mark Taplin for reasons 1.4(b) and (d).


1. (C) Summary: A heavy-handed attempt by Justice Minister
Chiuariu to remove Romania's top anti-corruption prosecutor
has been blocked for now by the Superior Council of
Magistracy (CSM) . The CSM decision effectively prevents the
anti-Basescu coalition from gaining control over
anticorruption prosecutions during the President's one-month
suspension period. Chiuariu's move clearly backfired,
eliciting protests and high-level resignations from senior
judicial officials, and prompting calls for Chiuariu's own
resignation. It has also prompted EU observers to pointedly
attend en masse the CSM hearing in a rare public gesture of
concern about the direction of judicial reform in Romania.
In turn, the Tariceanu government and Geoana's Social
Democrat Party have bristled at the negative foreign
attention on their moves to roll back Romania's
anti-corruption efforts. End summary.


2. (C) One of incoming Justice Minister Tudor Chiuariu's
first priorities has been an attempt to dismiss the National
Anticorruption Directorate's (DNA) Deputy Chief Doru Tulus.
This has provoked an uproar, including widespread complaints
of interference with the independence of prosecutors and
public calls for Chiuariu's resignation. Chiuariu reportedly
sent his surprise request for the dismissal of Tulus to
Interim President Nicolae Vacaroiu, without consulting DNA
Chief Prosecutor Dan Morar, Prosecutor General Codruta
Kovesi, or even his own Justice Ministry staffers responsible
for anticorruption efforts and relations with the
prosecutors. Civil society NGOs, intellectuals, as well as
magistrates protested Chiuariu's interference with the
judiciary. The National Institute of Magistracy revoked an
invitation for Chiuariu to speak the next evening, issuing a
statement that the "minister's message could contradict the
values promoted by the Institute." Three Ministry of Justice
officials also tendered their resignations in protest: State
Secretary Ionut Codescu, the minister's legal counselor

SIPDIS
Cristi Danilet, and the director for anticorruption efforts
Laura Stefan.


3. (C) During a May 8 meeting with visiting EUR A/S Dan
Fried and Ambassador, Prime Minister Tariceanu denied any
knowledge of the dismissal, which had been revealed by the
media a few hours earlier. However, the MOJ State Secretary
who resigned--Ionut Codescu--subsequently asserted to PolOff

and RLA that the Justice Minister would have done nothing
without the Prime Minister's explicit authorization. Codescu
mocked the crude way in which the bureaucratically
inexperienced Chiuariu attempted to carry out the dismissal,
noting that he failed to consult with senior staff who had
previously prepared such dismissals; Chiuariu had clearly
failed to anticipate the unprecedented uproar that his
heavy-handed attempt to threaten the magistrates would
provoke. Codescu, who has been in the MOJ since 1998 (and
State Secretary since September 2005) said the prosecutors'
protest was also a tribute to former Justice Minister Monica
Macovei's effectiveness in establishing a truly independent
judiciary, as such a protest would have been unthinkable just
a few years ago. The Ambassador's press statement following
his May 14 meeting with DNA Chief Morar, helped focus the
attention of other embassies, as well as the media, to these
"recent developments that had raised questions...about the
current direction of Romania's anti-corruption efforts."


4. (C) The targeted prosecutor, Doru Tulus, who is the DNA
Chief of Section II for Combating Corruption, told PolOff and
RLA May 14 that he believed the reason for the rushed request
for his dismissal was because of the many high-level
corruption investigations currently under his purview. He
estimated that 80-90 percent of his section's most important
cases involved senior public officials currently in power.
Tulus explained that demoting him from this position would
effectively remove him from the DNA since he was promoted
from the prosecutor's office in Cluj and would have to return
there -- a fact, he claimed, the Justice Minister knew well.
He noted that the move against him came only one day after an
unnamed leader of a political party was interrogated at DNA.
Tulus added, however, that he believed the attack was not the
result of a single case, but of several, and added "What
they've done to me is just the first step" and a "clear
message to other prosecutors to mind your own business or
wind up the same."


5. (C) The embattled Tulus said he believed that the
individuals behind the Justice Minister's decision were
trying to get rid of others as well, including DNA Chief

BUCHAREST 00000574 002 OF 003


Daniel Morar. He said that just by targeting his position,
they could block much of the anti-corruption agency's
activities, as the section chief reviews all information
relevant to new cases, decides whether to open
investigations, delegates cases to prosecutors, and decides
whether a case can be sent to court. Tulus also noted that
part of the Justice Minister's allegations against him was
that he had failed to adequately prosecute three high profile
cases -- despite the fact that these cases dated from
2002-2004, while he began working at the DNA only in 2005.


6. (C) Tulus also underscored the impact of parliament's
recent decriminalization of certain types of bank fraud,
noting that "one of the most important problems" in
post-communist Romania had been the collapse of the banking
system. The failures of Bancorex (then the largest Romanian
bank),the Romanian-Turkish Bank, the International Bank of
Religions, the Romanian Development Bank, and the
Agricultural Bank were the result of oligarchs' obtaining
huge sums of money through loans that were then redirected
for other purposes. A law had been passed in 2000 that
criminalized this behavior, and the strict penalities -- 5-15
years in prison -- were "enough to make people afraid,"
according to Tulus. Geoana's PSD led the effort in
parliament to decriminalize this kind of bank fraud -- an
effort that succeeded with the passage of new legislation in
March 2007 that left it to the banks to sanction bank
employees for facilitating such fraud. Tulus said this
change made it harder for investigators to request bank
records and to get the documents needed to open preliminary
investigations.


7. (C) The CGghQ;HQen, the European Commission Delegation; an Embassy
poloff also attended. Justice Minister Chiurariu frowned
throughout the hearing and appeared to be there more in the
role of a note taker than the proponent of the motion. He
was visibly upset by the presence both of many reporters and
diplomatic observers. The Superior Council of Magistracy
(CSM) subsequently dealt a major blow to the dismissal
request by voting to delay any removal of Tulus until it had
conducted its own inspection of DNA, beginning June 1,
effectively delay any decision until after the May 19
presidential referendum.


8. (C) Despite the CSM's position, DNA Chief Morar
complained that such a special review of DNA activity was
unwarranted since it already was subjected to periodic
reviews and was undergoing one currently. Laura Stefan, the
MOJ Anticorruption Director who resigned in protest after the
suspension effort was revealed, told PolOff that performing
such an inspection would slow down the DNA during the next
two months and give people outside DNA unprecedented access
to current case files and a look into the DNA's sources,
methods, technical abilities and operational secrets. She
believed "deals are being done" as many high-level officials
are willing to pay "high prices" for such knowledge.


9. (C) Comment: The intense scrutiny that Justice Minister
Chiuriaru's abortive move to tamper with the anti-corruption
prosecutors elicited from the diplomatic community clearly
played a role in thwarting a fairly transparent attempt to
play havoc with the anti-corruption prosecutors during
Basescu's suspension. That this has incurred the resentment
of PM Tariceanu and others is no secret. Tariceanu in recent
press comments complained that "the attitudes of certain
diplomats in Bucharest oversteps the normal scope of
diplomatic work," adding that Romania as an EU state needs to
be treated as a "partner and equal." He also reportedly
claimed the Ambassador had made a "groundless" assertion when
he said recent events had raised questions regarding the
GOR's anticorruption fight. Similarly, PSD spokesman
Cristian Diaconescu complained that the presence of diplomats
from the U.S. and EU in observing the CSM hearing was an
"unprecedented disgrace" and a sign that Romania was being
treated as a country with "limited sovereignty" akin to
Kosovo. To its credit, the European Commission has not
retreated, underscoring that the EU and member states had
been assisting the CSM, the DNA, and other justice
institutions for some years and noted the benchmark on
anticorruption efforts that Romania must fulfill. When
Justice Minister Christian David raised the same types of
objections during a May 18 meeting with the Ambassador, we
noted that the CSM hearing had been open to the public, and
that the Embassy was fulfilling its legitimate diplomatic
role. End Comment.

BUCHAREST 00000574 003 OF 003


TAUBMAN

Share this cable

 facebook -  bluesky -