The organization of the General Assembly of Judges amid a pandemic is neither opportune nor reasonable, judge Victoria Sanduța, president of the Administration Board of the public association “Voice of Justice”, stated in a news conference at IPN. According to her, the members of the Supreme Council of Magistracy could give a news conference to respond to questions related to the mandate.
“The General Assembly of Judges could be put off so as to show consciousness and social solidarity given that the population was urged to respect this period of quarantine and to avoid crowdedness. The judges should be the first who give an example of observance of the rules of social coexistence and assumed responsible behavior,” stated Victoria Sanduța.
If the event planned for March 13 will anyway take place, “Voice of Justice” calls on the participants to show maximum responsibility and respect the protection and personal hygiene measures. “It is the duty of the SCM to issue a press release on the issue with updated information so as not to cause inconvenience to all those who will come and those who should cover a distance of several hours and expose themselves to risks in transport and the assembly would ultimately not take place because of the absence of a quorum,” stated Victoria Sanduța.
The judge noted that the General Assembly of Judges is expected to discuss the problems that brought the judicial system into an impasse and endangered the rule of law as a result of the subduing of justice by the political factor. Each judge should realize their role at this assembly, which resides in the setting of the functioning principles of the judicial system.
Victoria Sanduța referred also to hearings, saying that amid the coronavirus pandemic, it is opportune to postpone these. “Each courtroom hosts by 10-12 hearings that involve at least four persons who are present in the room. But there could be 10, 20 or even 50 persons,” she stated.
The World Health Organization on March 11 declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. Four cases of infection with COVID-19 have been confirmed in Moldova so far.
