Even a cursory search on the Internet reveals a strange phenomenon in one of the branches of government – the judiciary. The Special Prosecutor’s Office demands severe punishment for Romanian customs and border guards for corruption crimes and bribery. However, the courts cancel their evidence, decide that there are no incriminating facts and absolve the defendants of their sins.

After a trial that lasted more than eight years, the magistrates of the Suceava Court of Appeal recently acquitted most of the accused in the corruption case at the Siret checkpoint, the decision is final. “There are no facts,” the court decided, sending DNA prosecutors out for a walk. Out of 35 border guards and customs officers, only one was sentenced to 5 months of suspended imprisonment, but even this sentence can be overturned due to the statute of limitations. [1]

In 2020, the court acquitted 14 border guards, led by a commissioner, accused by DNA of accepting bribes when used tires entered the country. The catch is that there were actually 18 defendants, but four pleaded guilty and received (suspended) sentences ranging from two to two years and six months. [2]

In 2021, the Timisoara Court of Appeal ruled in favor of the prosecutors and sent the case back to the Arad court – only for the defendants to be acquitted again. The court again established that the investigators illegally “worked” the persons involved, causing bribes to be received and turning a blind eye to the receipt of waste. [3]

The customs officer of the port of Constanta in 2020 asked the state for one million euros in damages because he was preventively imprisoned for six months before being finally acquitted after the DNA mega-investigation known as the “Port File”. [4]

The phenomenon is very difficult to explain:

From the perspective of the courts, this would demonstrate the clear incompetence of some prosecutors, which is very difficult to tolerate. It is equally hard to believe that one of them, probably out of boredom in a country where corruption and bribery would be on the verge of disappearing (?), decided to fabricate some more files so that they would not be liquidated. . And falsify the evidence so much that it would be easily overturned or even illegal.

On the part of the prosecutor’s office, this would mean that judges from diametrically opposite points of the country, suffocated by fewer and fewer cases and impatiently waiting for retirement, wanted to dissuade the state ministry from considering new cases by any means.

From the point of view of public opinion, it remains only a mystery that cannot be solved.

However, everything changes if we look at the phenomenon from the point of view of the EU factors called to decide on the acceptance or rejection of Romania to the Schengen area. Nothing will stop them from believing that our country is ruled by an invisible system that controls everything from the borders to the top of the courts. Those who pull the strings want to keep loyal people on their borders who provide them with unlimited financial resources at all costs. Through them, not only used tires or cigarettes enter the country, but also migrants, drugs, weapons and who knows what other people and things that make our European partners a nightmare. And such a system can also put incompetent people, plagiarists (that is, thieves), who are very easy to control and manipulate, under the control of other public authorities.

Yes, Romania obviously fulfills all the technical criteria for joining Schengen, which was also established by the European Commission. However, the situation changes when it comes to “soft” criteria related to morality, competence, honesty and loyalty in terms of compliance. For years, the European partners have been able to play a subtle game in the same “soft” way: sometimes the Netherlands was on the buttons, then Sweden appeared, and suddenly Austria.

When Romania’s accession to the EU and NATO was decided between the millennia on purely political grounds, the world scene looked very different, much calmer and closer to the “end of history”, with which Fukuyama also admitted that he had been defeated. Now, when the war in Europe and the unpredictable world economic and political situation are on the verge of collapse, let’s not be surprised that the European game goes from “soft” to “hard” and with Schengen. The denouement will come soon, and all we can hope for is another miracle. Read the whole article and comment on Cotributors.ro