The interim president of the Senate, Alina Gorghiu, on the statements made by Justice Minister Predoiu on the case of Giorgiana Hosu’s husband: „It was a blunder, it was an error. It can happen to anyone / The important thing is that he apologised, that he admitted he made a mistake”

The interim president of the Senate, Alina Gorghiu (PNL), said on Monday that the statements made by Justice Minister Cătălin Predoiu on the case of the husband of former DIICOT chief Giorgiana Hosu were „a blunder, an error” that „can happen to anyone” and that it is important that the minister „apologised, that he admitted he was wrong”.

Gorghiu was asked if the PNL has anything to reproach the Justice Minister for the statements he made about the case of the husband of the head of the DIICOT.

„The minister said it. It was a blunder, it was an error. It can happen to anyone. Show me one person in this world who doesn’t make blunders or who doesn’t make mistakes. We’re all subject to mistakes. The important thing is that he apologised, the important thing is that he admitted he made a mistake and things are clear as far as I am concerned”, said Alina Gorghiu.

Uniunea Salvați România is asking Justice Minister Cătălin Predoiu to explain in the Senate, during Government Hour, the statements on the final acquittal of Dan Hosu, husband of former DIICOT head Giorgiana Hosu, without a sentence in this regard.

Background

The husband of former DIICOT chief Dan Hosu died on Friday. He is said to have suffered from an incurable disease, according to family relatives. Justice Minister Cătălin Predoiu has been accused of jumping the gun in his case, stating that he would be acquitted, although the trial is still ongoing, with the next deadline set for 7 February.

Justice Minister Cătălin Predoiu said on 18 January, on the very day the government was due to adopt a revised list including Judge Claudia Jderu on the list of nominees to the ECHR, that the husband of former DIICOT chief Giorgiana Hosu had been acquitted. The case is still pending.

Claudia Jderu is one of the judges on the panel trying Dan Hosu, along with Judge Sabina Adomniței, who G4Media.ro wrote that she has risen spectacularly in her career in less than two years, from the Iasi Court of Appeal to the Bucharest Court of Appeal.

Seven member organisations of the „NGOs for Citizens” group published an open letter on Thursday calling for the „immediate” resignation of Minister Cătălin Predoiu, according to a press release. The NGOs complain about „a series of facts that indicate a possible involvement of the Minister of Justice, Mr. Cătălin Predoiu, in a corruption case under discussion in court”, referring to the case of the husband of the former head of DIICOT, Giorgiana Hosu.

„We believe that Mr Predoiu has gone far beyond his duties as a minister, and the whole development of the facts raises reasonable suspicions about an attempt to cover up political interference in the justice system. In these circumstances, we consider that Mr Predoiu is morally incompatible with the position of Minister of Justice and we call for his immediate resignation,” the signatory NGOs say.

Their position comes after G4Media revealed that Predoiu met at the Ministry of Justice on 19 January with Claudia Jderu, one of the judges in the Hosu case.

The government claims, in a series of clarifications sent to G4Media.ro on Wednesday evening, that the revised list for the ECHR, which includes Judge Claudia Jderu, was not adopted on 19 October 2022, as the government itself announced at the time, and that the memorandum was only discussed in the government and the decision „was postponed”. Communicating the adoption of the memorandum with the revised list would have been a „clerical error”, the government added, which would have been corrected. The government says that the revised list would have been approved on 18 January 2023, at the proposal of the justice minister, under the „confidential heading” and that this would be the reason why the information was not communicated at the time of the adoption of the memorandum with the list of judges proposed by Romania for the ECHR.