Status of judges was reduced to zero, Supreme Council of Magistrates members

The members of the Supreme Council of Magistrates complained to the Acting President Mihai Ghimpu that the Parliament and the Government adopt too many amendments to laws without consulting the Council. “The law on the status of judge is very often targeted. The previous government did so and the present one continues doing so. All the social, economic and legal guarantees of judges were reduced to zero,” member Vasile Cretu said at the May 11 meeting of the Council, Info-Prim Neo reports. Vasile Cretu told Mihai Ghimpu that the law on the judicial police is not observed. “Instead of protecting the judges who are often threatened, the police guard the building of Galben (Andrei Galben, the rector of the Free International University of Moldova – e.n.) or the holiday resorts in Vadul lui Voda. This problem should be dealt with,” Vasile Cretu said. Another member of the Council, Nicolae Timofti said a State Coordination Council should be set up to examine all the initiatives to modify the legislation on justice, before they are approved by the Government or the Parliament. “The most significant amendments to the law on the status of judge were introduced in 2006 and 2008. But they did not improve the legal system. The administration has changed, but we do not feel changes,” Nicolae Timofti said. “We will accept no bill if it is not approved by you first,” Mihai Ghimpu said resolutely. The Council's chairman Dumitru Visterniceanu said the problem of petitions should be solved. He stressed that many courts that receive petitions from people send them to the Supreme Council of Magistrates after examining them, saying it is not within their competence to deal with them. “The people should be informed that their petitions cannot be examined by the given institutions so that they decide themselves what to do next. We have three persons at the Council that should check the work of the courts, but they do not manage to as they have to analyze over 1,000 petitions,” he said.