The justice sector reform cannot come from outside. It must come from inside. A real change will occur only when it comes from inside to outside, not vice versa, judge Victoria Sanduța, president of the Association “Voice of Justice”, stated in an interview for IPN.
She said only the judges who are members of the judicial system, who form the judiciary, can start the cleanup to outside. The external evaluation is an erroneous concept that is doomed to failure. “’It is first of all not a constitutional instrument and mechanism,” said the judge, noting that a change in the Superior Council of Magistracy is needed as no cleaning in the system is possible with the current SCM.
In the cleanup of the system, society should be courageous and should denounce all the cases of abuse that they know. But before being courageous, society must admit that the people are usually of good faith. But when a personal problem appears, they somehow adopt double standards as if they want to make sure that the case is solved in their favor. That’s why society should realize that the current political class and also the judges and prosecutors are the exact copy of society. “The person, society should not make effort to influence things, as they use to do in Moldovan society, if the case reaches court”.
When the SCM is changed and broad processes to modify the judiciary are launched, the Council should establish a relationship of cooperation with the legislature and the government, said Victoria Sanduța. According to her, the judicial power should cooperate with the legislative and executive powers.
“The legislature is the one that adopts laws and when the SCM ascertains legal impediments, cooperation between these powers should exist so as to initiate consultations with Parliament. Or the SCM should have the right of legislative initiative and should formulate proposals to contribute to improving the situation, and should ultimately ensure fair justice,” stated Victoria Sanduța.
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The interview was held in the framework of IPN’s project “Exposing Injustice through Multimedia”. Victoria Sanduța is a judge of the Centru branch of the Chisinau City Court and president of the Association “Voice of Justice”. In a meeting of the Superior Council of Magistracy of July 2019, the judge read a common statement of judges by which these condemn the lack of independence and integrity of the Council and of the judicial system in general. She also named the members of the SCM “accomplices of Plahotniuc’s regime” and demanded that they should resign.
