The Declic community files a criminal complaint after the cancellation of the plagiarism complaints against Prime Minister Nicolae Ciucă. The organization is asking for verification of how the file reached Judge Marius Iosif, previously appointed to several public positions by PNL

The Declic community, which runs various social campaigns, announced in a press release that it will file a criminal complaint with the DIICOT on Thursday, demanding an investigation into the way in which the plagiarism complaints against Prime Minister Nicolae Ciucă were canceled. 

The criminal complaint registered at the prosecutor’s office concerns the crime of altering the integrity of computer data, after information appeared in the press that there had been interference in the random assignment of the case to the Bucharest Court of Appeal, to reach a „dedicated judge”. 

G4Media revealed that the case in which Prime Minister Nicolae Ciucă asked for the plagiarism complaints to be annulled has reached Judge Marius Iosif, a close friend of the PNL, appointed by this party to several public positions. Immediately after he got rid of Nicolae Ciucă’s plagiarism allegations, Judge Marius Iosif retired. 

Judicial sources told G4Media that the „cover method”, known for a long time in the judicial system, was used to get the file on Iosif’s desk. 

Declic is therefore asking the DIICOT prosecutors to check whether the law has been broken. 

„The possibility that a prime minister could evade justice to escape accusations that he plagiarized his doctoral thesis is scandalous. Both the error in the registration of the file and the sudden retirement of the judge after the decision in favor of Prime Minister Nicolae Ciucă seem to be stitched together with white thread. I have always campaigned for independent justice. We want citizens to know the truth and this can only be established through a criminal investigation,” said Ana Racheleanu, Declic campaigner. 

The complaint was drafted by Declic’s lawyers and filed on Thursday 25 August at the Directorate for the Investigation of Organized Crime and Terrorism. The costs of paying the lawyers are entirely covered by donations from Declic members. 

„Given the mechanism of violation of the procedure of random assignment of the file, there is a possible involvement of several persons in the commission of the crime of altering the integrity of computer data, such as for example the duty judge, court clerks, chief clerk or persons operating the computer system,” the complaint filed with DIICOT states. 

In this case, Prime Minister Nicolae Ciucă has sued the Ministry of Education and the National Council for Accreditation of University Degrees, Diplomas and Certificates(CNATDCU). The Prime Minister’s lawyers have asked for the three complaints of plagiarism for his doctoral thesis to be annulled. These complaints were submitted to the CNATDCU after analysis by journalist Emilia Șercan. The journalist revealed that at least 42 pages, out of a total of 138 in Prime Minister Ciucă’s doctoral thesis, were plagiarized. 

 In the case of the case file allocation, 14 NGOs referred the case to the Judicial Inspection and asked for checks. The Judicial Inspectorate found that there was nothing wrong with the allocation of the file. 

According to the press release, the Declic Community is made up of hundreds of thousands of ordinary people living in Romania or in the diaspora. Declic representatives are Ana Racheleanu (campaigner) and Toni Decean, lawyer. 

Translated from Romanian