Constitutional Court ruling cripples Securitate investigative institution

The ordinance will ensure the continuation of CNSAS. The major change is that CNSAS will now have a constitutive function, it other words it will be restricted to just researching Securitate files and compiling reports but will no longer be able to make decisions concerning certain people’s collaboration with the Securitate. From now on, the decisions will be passed by the Justice system.
The scandal over the fate of the institution broke out at the end of January when the Constitutional Court accepted the objections made by businessman-politician Dan Voiculescu to several articles in the law which regulates the CNSAS functioning. Voiculescu, a senator and former leader of the Conservative Party, as well as an influential businessman who also owns the Intact press trust, had been under CNSAS scrutiny. The institution ruled that he had been collaborating with the Securitate during the communist era under the name of Felix, which he has repeatedly denied.
The Constitutional Court declared articles 7, 8 and 9 of Law 187 unconstitutional. The articles refer to the foundation of the Council, the components of the CNSAS College and the revocation of its members. The decision would have led to the dissolving of the institution, supported also by the People’s Lawyer, Ioan Muraru, who referred to CNSAS as “this unconstitutional venom,” if it were not for the public outcry which persuaded PM Tariceanu to promise an emergency ordinance regulating the status of the institution.

Otilia Haraga