Two days after the information related to the 2018 corruption case involving the new member of the Superior Council of Magistracy (SCM), Iulian Muntean, appeared in the public space, the other members of the Council issued a statement expressing their concern that Muntean had provided the Pre-Vetting Commission with “incorrect or incomplete information regarding an ongoing investigation initiated as early as 2018”. In this regard, the SCM members argue that the best solution for Iulian Muntean would be to submit a resignation request.

The nine members of the SCM say they are also concerned by the fact that, “although it has been known for several months that Iulian Muntean was subject to checks before the Pre-vetting Commission, this information was nevertheless communicated to the public by state institutions only now, two weeks after his appointment as a member of the SCM for a six-year term”.

“(…) Like society as a whole, the members of the SCM had no knowledge of these circumstances until 20 September 2023 (…). The SCM also expresses its concern that Mr Muntean may have provided incorrect or incomplete information regarding an ongoing investigation initiated as early as 2018.

We, the members of the SCM, declare that we cannot allow a member of the Superior Council of Magistracy to circumvent the extraordinary evaluation procedures, which have quite clear and rigorous requirements. In the absence of a justification and credible explanations regarding these circumstances, which led him not to communicate his status as a defendant in a criminal case, we believe that the best solution for Iulian Muntean would be to submit his resignation request.

Provided that high ethical standards and standards of conduct are required before the entire judiciary, we cannot allow their integrity to be assessed by persons who did not behave sincerely and honestly during the extraordinary evaluation procedure,” a SCM statement said.

On Friday, September 22, Justice Minister Veronica Mihailov-Moraru came out with a reaction to the scandal involving the new non-judge member of the SCM, Iulian Muntean. The minister said that his failure to indicate in the Pre-Vetting Commission’s questionnaire that he had appeared as a defendant in a criminal case “raises serious doubts about his integrity”. Thus, “in order not to discredit his image and efforts in justice reform as a whole”, she recommended his “withdrawal or resignation” from office.

On 21 September, the Pre-Vetting Commission came up with clarifications in the context of information appearing in the public space regarding Iulian Muntean, a candidate for the position of member of the Superior Council of Magistracy (CSM), who passed the extraordinary evaluation on 14 August 2023, and was appointed by Parliament to the Superior Council of Magistracy on 7 September 2023, in the sense that he is allegedly accused in a criminal corruption trial dating back to 2018. According to the published press release, “throughout the evaluation process, the Commission has not been informed of any investigations or criminal proceedings involving Iulian Muntean”.

In order to assess the financial and ethical integrity of candidates, the Pre-Vetting Commission claims that, by law, it collects data from numerous public and private sources, including the National Anti-Corruption Centre and the Intelligence and Security Service.

Subsequently, the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office stated that it had not been asked by the Pre-Vetting Commission to provide information on candidate Iulian Muntean “as was done in the case of other candidates”.

The family of the new non-judge member of the SCM, Iulian Muntean, who supported the integrity assessment despite having a status of a corruption indictment in a 2018 case, and was appointed by the Parliament, was involved in the election campaign of the Action and Solidarity Party (PAS) for the July 11, 2021 parliamentary elections.

Lawyer Iulian Muntean’s wife, Neli Muntean, has been a member of PAS since September 2021, i.e. after the elections. The information was confirmed for ZdG by the spokeswoman of the ruling party Adriana Vlas. However, Iulian Muntean, who also handed out election materials on behalf of PAS, was not previously a member of the party, according to the same sources.