Justice minister insists on depriving judges of immunity

Specifying the corruption-related offenses such as passive corruption or traffic of influence, for which a judge can be deprived of immunity and investigated without the consent of the Supreme Council of Magistrates, can be a compromise solution acceptable to the lawmakers and judges, considers Minister of Justice Oleg Efrim. According to a communiqué from the Ministry of Justice, quoted by Info-Prim Neo, in public debates on the justice sector reform Oleg Efrim said that any attempt to influence the decision of the court will be inevitably hampered by the system of guarantees available in a trial. Without convincing evidence, no judge will authorize the tapping of phones, the search or arrest of another judge. Only the prosecutor general will be able to issue a decision allowing taking legal action against a judge suspected of corruption. “The immunity, as a guarantee of the independence of judges, must ensure their freedom to perform their duties or their functional independence. Any guarantees outside this framework violate the principle of equality provided in and defended by the supreme law,” said Oleg Efrim. During the debates, the president of the Supreme Court of Justice Mihai Poalelungi said the limitation of the judges’ immunity is a hasty measure that can result in abuses against judges. The head of the penal of judges of the Bremen Court Hans-Otto Bartels urged the Moldovan judges to contribute to the improvement of the image of the judiciary and to voluntarily renounce such privileges. The withdrawal of the immunity of judges suspected of committing acts of corruption is stipulated in a package of bills on the functioning of the judiciary that was drafted by the Ministry of Justice and approved by the Government in February. This package is to be adopted by Parliament by the end of the current session.