President Nicusor Dan announced that he is to present a diagnostic of the justice system, resulted from discussions with people in the area.

He mentioned on Monday at Antena 1 private television station, that one of the current problems is represented by the inability of prosecutors to prove corruption offenses.

„Meaning, we see corruption around us and we do not see corrupt individuals to be punished by the Romanian state. Here is the problem and certainly, we can debate it and we have started a reflection process. I met with several people for the justice area and I believe I will come out, within a reasonable time frame, with a diagnostic of the Romanian justice system,” the president mentioned.

Corruption represents a „matter of national security,” Nicusor Dan said, who expressed his confidence that the Supreme Council for National Defence (CSAT) and Parliament will share his point of view.

„The document which , somehow, gives powers to the SRI [Romanian Intelligence Service] is the National Security Strategy. I believe and I hope for the CSAT and Parliament to share my opinion, when we propose this strategy. I believe that corruption is a matter of national security. The lack of confidence which people currently have in the political class, in the state institutions, comes from the fact that they perceive the existing corruption,” he said.

The president underscored the importance of a very clear separation between the responsibilities of the Prosecutor’s Office, the judge and intelligence officer.

„The intelligence officer’s role is to gather information – as they do about networks, about sabotages. They, being in the field and discussing and analyzing social relations can see corruption phenomena. The key is that, once they have the information about the corruption phenomena and once they mention and report this alleged act of corruption to the Prosecutor’s Office, they should have no further interference with the case. And the Prosecutor’s Office, possibly with a judge’s warrant for surveillance or whatever they can do using the legal, constitutional tools available to the Prosecutor’s Office, should handle the notification. I want the roles to be very clearly divided between what the Intelligence Service does and what the Prosecutor’s Office does,” Nicusor Dan explained.

He added that the judge is the one to validate the warrants for interceptions in cases related to national security or certain crimes.

„At the moment and the law clearly defines things, there are two types of interceptions, both being validated by judges. Some concern national security, when the SRI goes to a judge and says: ‘I need to carry out interceptions because I believe national security is being affected’. And others are carried out by the Prosecutor’s Office, again requesting approval from a judge, in cases involving offence matters,” Nicusor Dan explained.

The president also stated that in cases where there have been interferences between the intelligence officer and the prosecutor or judge, the law has not been observed.

„What happened then is that the law was not observed. That is the very simple answer. (…) In no case does the presence of corruption in the Security Strategy imply interference between the prosecutor and the intelligence officer or, worse, between the intelligence officer and the judge. Thus, there have been people people who did not observe the law, and at that time the justice system lacked the safeguards to prevent this harmful influence,” he said. AGERPRES