No plausible support for amending Law on judicial immunity, says NGO

Non-Governmental Organization “Center of Initiatives and Public Authorities Monitoring” (CIMAP) claims that the Ministry of Justice has no plausible arguments for amending the Law on taking away judicial immunity, reports Info-Prim Neo. According to a communiqué from the NGO, the modification will have no noticeable consequences and will only throw away the syntax of “independence of justice” to the trash-bin of Moldova’s judicial history. “Not even the minimum efforts were made in analyzing the existent legislative norm and clearly explain, to a third party, if currently there are no possibilities to open a criminal file on a corrupt judge, knowing that it would serve the interests of the Law”, the communiqué mentions. CIMAP representatives point out that the Ministry of Justice did not present their count on the number of times when the Supreme Magistrate Council refused to open criminal cases on corrupt judges. “All these “omissions” do not do more for this bill than fulfill the old politicians’ desire to control the judicial system, and to fulfill the wills of the two powers by keeping the third one in the waiting room indefinitely”, says the CIMAP communiqué. The organization considers that, before the final voting, the bill should undergo an expertise from foreign experts. The Parliament voted a bill in the first reading, which stipulates that the Prosecutor General, without asking the agreement of the Supreme Magistrate Council, can initiate criminal proceedings against judges suspected of corruption.