Romanian president says judiciary will be investigated to address claims of abuses

BUCHAREST, Dec 22 - Romania's President Nicușor Dan pledged to investigate claims of systemic abuses in the judiciary after meeting judges and prosecutors on Monday, saying the integrity of the justice system was in serious doubt.

Dan said hundreds of magistrates had described a climate of fear and undue influence by the Supreme Judicial Council, the country's top justice watchdog, which they accused of acting in the interest of a select group rather than the public.

"The situation we are in is serious, in that there is this suspicion about the integrity of the judicial system," he said in a statement, adding the claims would be investigated.

"The conclusion ... is that there is a category of magistrates ... chief court judges who do not act in the public interest, but who act in the interest of a group."

The meeting followed Dan's open invitation to members of the judiciary to submit complaints, after he said on Sunday he had received roughly 2,000 pages of examples of integrity problems warranting investigation and further action.

The president appoints chief judges and prosecutors and can attend meetings of the top judicial council, but does not have the legal powers to replace them.

However, far-right lawmakers have accused Dan, a centrist, of interfering in the independence of the judiciary and demanded he be impeached.

The accusations of abuses in the justice system came after independent media outlet Recorder aired a documentary purporting to show how chief judges use legal loopholes for unethical practices, including questionable acquittals.

Thousands of people protested in the capital Bucharest and across Romania in early December against the alleged abuses.

Romania is one of the European Union's most corrupt states. Brussels kept the country's justice system under special monitoring after it joined the EU in 2007. Since this was lifted in 2023 the pace of anti-graft investigations has slowed. REUTERS