Mihai Gâdea read during the Tuesday's edition of the show Daily summary, an open letter to the public opinion in Romania, but also to the head of DNA Laura Codruţa Kovesi in which he draws attention to how some are trying to silence journalists and the media in general .
The content of the letter:
Wednesday, April 6, 2016, the Court of Appeal will hear the appeal in the case in which the head of DNA Laura Kovesi asked for the huge amount of 1,000,000 lei in moral damages, because during a telecast, some journalists asked questions and issued opinions absolutely normal in a democratic society to a public event commented by the entire press.
We were forced in the appearance before judge Crina Buricea from the Bucharest Court , to pay damages of 250,000 (about 60,000 euros), a colossal sum which the applicant Laura Kovesi could not justify. She admitted before the court that she cannot bring evidence in support of her damages claim. She has filed no document to prove the damages, but she was granted damages payment in an amount equivalent to that of an apartment in the capital, the highest amount ever paid in a press case file.
This was a mock trial. Judge Crina Buricea could not indicate in the sentence the evidence by which the applicant has proved our deed wrongful. Against us, a simple inspection report by SCM was used that Laura Kovesi had her reputation defended from comments published in all the media in June 2014 on the complaints made to against her and the president of the High Court of Cassation and Justice Livia Stanciu, by the inmate Sandu Anghel.
The whole sentence is but a transposition of the SCM Inspection Report for the defense of the reputation of Mrs Kovesi, a civil penalty sentence, in a court action in which our defenses did not matter, only what was written in that report. SCM is responsible by law to determine whether journalists are guilty and the SCM Inspection materials about the press are issued unilaterally, in all cases without hearing the journalists accused of having impaired the independence of the judiciary.
We note before the public that journalists are no longer judged on the evidence presented in court, but on inspection reports produced by SCM - which does not have the task of establishing liability of individuals and cannot be delivered by res judicata - when it comes to m such as the head of DNA Laura Kovesi.
We appealed against the unjust sentence in the first trial. In the first hearing of 03/23/2016 our judging was forced as urgent after we were absolutely rejected all defense evidence required.
Even the records of the trial held at the Bucharest Court – with which we intend to prove that Laura Kovesi said in the courtroom that she cannot prove that she has suffered injury - we were denied access to them, as we have been refused access to the same records all the while case was at the Bucharest Court. We have been virtually been banned access to personal files.
What fair trial can we expect in the appeal ,when no evidence has been admitted to the file and all the support documents we submitted were rejected? The journalists were ordered to pay damages even those who made no statement against applicant Kovesi.
It came as a huge surprise to see after the trial ended that one of the judges in the judges panel who rejecte all our evidence, judge Andreea Doris Tomescu used to be a DNA prosecutor and she became judge by the endorsement given by SCM, whose member used to be the applicant Laura Kovesi, during the time she served as prosecutor general.
Judge Andreea Doris Tomescu did not understand to recuse herself although it is common knowledge that the applicant Laura Kovesi, as head of DNA, attacked 2015 with an appeal for anulement the final sentence for the acquittal of Mariana Rarinca, on the grounds tha one of the appeal judes was in incompatibility for the mere fact that three years before the acquittal sentence was ruled she ha had a contradictory talk during a SCM meeting with the injured party Livia Stanciu.
The appeal for annulment was admissible in the Rarinca case on grounds of incompatibility of the judge, the reason stated, but here a case in which the head of DNA is the applicant, it is normal to undergo trial before a former DNA prosecutor whom she endorsed as a judge.
Obviously, we cannot hope for a fair trial, given that the issue of our innocence is not supported by evidence in the file, but by who judges us, justice becomes a lottery in which you have the chance or the bad luck to come across certain judges.
This open letter aims to signal a warning to the society about the way we believe we are harassed in courts by the head of DNA Laura Kovesi without taking into consideration as evidence the defense materials we have submitted nor the appearance of a fair trial.
Signed by,
Mihai Gâdea
Radu Tudor
Bianca Nae
Mugur Ciuvică
Răzvan Savaliuc”