Some specialists consider that the criminal case started against judge Domnica Manole for obliging the Central Election Commission (CEC) to hold the constitutional referendum initiated by the Platform “Dignity and Truth” represents revenge taken by the government. Others consider the judge passed an illegal judgment and must be answer for this. Contradictory statements on the issue were made in the talk show “In Depth” on PRO TV Chisinau channel, IPN reports.
Tamara Raducanu, a member of the Supreme Council of Magistracy, criticized the Council’s decision to grant the request of the acting prosecutor general to annul the immunity of Domnica Manole. “I and Dumitru Visternicean had separate opinions. There are international standards. A judge cannot be prosecuted because a superior court took another decision, for the way she interprets the law. This is a dangerous precedent for our whole judicial system. This is a case of public interest and our people expect correct decisions from us. How correct the decisions will be if the judges are afraid to have their own position?”, said the judge.
Victor Puscas, ex-president of the Supreme Court of Justice and of the Constitutional Court, said the Supreme Council of Magistracy’s decision is incorrect. “The Council should have taken into consideration the judge’s statutes, which say that a judge can be deprived of immunity if this broke the law intentionally. As far as I know, no such proofs were presented with regard to Domnica Manole,” he stated.
Supreme Council of Magistracy member Teodor Carnat said the decision to annul the immunity of Manole was correct. “We didn’t condemn Domnica Manole. I think the judges must not have immunity. I have a number of questions – if the judge wasn’t influenced, if Manole didn’t take revenge for not being promoted to the Supreme Court of Justice, if she wasn’t somehow bribed,” he said.
Within a call-in, acting prosecutor general Eduard Harujen said he reacted to the CEC’s request and the fact that the judgment passed by Manole is illegal was confirmed by the Supreme Court of Justice.
