“In 2008, the Supreme Council of Magistrature (SCM) found no corruption among judges. Only in one case the SCM agreed to sue a judge suspected of such acts,” SCM chair Nicolae Clima told the annual reunion of judges on Friday, Info-Prim Neo reports. In 2008, the SCM agreed to start legal procedures against five judges for evincing sentences contrary to the law. 11 were 'disciplinarily sanctioned' for breeching ethical norms and the principle of impartiality. The SCM chairman has reconfirmed “the will of the council to sanction the manifestations not complying with the craft of judging and to make efforts to eradicate the corrupting factors in the system.” “The Supreme Council of Magistrature reiterates its full availability to prevent and stop the scourge of corruption,” Clima said. He points out the phenomenon should not be generalized to the level of whole society or the whole judiciary system. “Our opinion is that the phenomenon should be specified in order to be countered more efficiently.” “The main essence of the measures to be taken by any court is strengthening a cycle of organizational integrity at all levels,” Nicolae Clima said. In his speech, the SCM chair has shown that the judge is the key factor to ensure the independence and impartiality of the judiciary, the equity of trials depends on the masterliness of the judges. Yet, he highlighted a series of non-incriminating causes as too much work the judges have to do or the shortage of magistrates. The chairman of the Supreme Court of Justice (SCJ), Ion Muruianu, complained about the judges being overcharged with work. “The number of dossiers rises year by year, and the dynamics has been scary for the last ten years,” Muruianu said. According to him, if in 1998 the Supreme Court judged 1,433 cases, in 2008 their number was 9,733. The SCJ chairman has said it is necessary to revise the legislation related to civil and penal proceedings. He says more judges are necessary. According to an opinion poll carried out by Transparency International, 50.5% of households and 48.6% of interviewed businesspeople consider that corruption is widely spread in the judiciary. 66% of the respondents in a poll carried out in the courts of Anenii Noi and Ialoveni say they often resort to bribe judges to solve their cases. In this respect, 43% of the respondents confessed the bribes are given to intermediaries, 37% - to lawyers and 15% - directly to judges. 35% of the Anenii Noi respondents and 32% of the Ialoveni interviewed say they give bribe to judges on their will. 45% of the respondents say the average bribe to a judge is 5-10 thousand lei, as 33% of them say it depends on the case.