Romania High Court President Criticizes Legal Reform, Ex Justice Min

The head of the Romanian High Court of Justice, Nicolae Popa, said Thursday that the reform of the Romanian judiciary in recent years has been a "mockery", and harshly criticized former justice minister Monica Macovei, who initiated the reforms.

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Popa said neither judges, nor prosecutors are to blame for the return of case files, reminding that in 2006, Romania had three valid criminal codes, of which two were not effective.

"Prosecutors who applied legal provisions are not to blame, but judges could not look the other way and not notice that the laws were unconstitutional," Popa said.

Popa compared the number of files received by Romanian judges to that received by German judges, considering that Germany has a case filtering procedure. In one year, Germany had 5 million cases, of which one million were solved and the rest were filtered.

"For a judge to be impartial, that judge must have the time and possibility to be impartial," Popa said, adding a Romanian judge with eth high Court of Justice has some 160-240 of cases each month.

Popa said he is mad at himself and the High Council of Magistrates for not having intervened when former justice minister Monica Macovei promoted unconstitutional laws without thinking through the effects the changes would have.

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