European Court for Human Rights shows concern in Romanian judge’s case

The President of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), Jean Paul Costa has recently shown his concern in the case of one of the ECHR's judges who claimed diplomatic immunity for his wife, namely Gabriela Birsan, a Romanian judge investigated for corruption. The Court’s concern appeared after the Romanian prosecutors have been raiding the Romanian judge and his wife's house located in a Romanian mountain resort, without asking the ECHR to lift the immunity of its Romanian member. “The Court is concerned that in carrying out a search in the home of the Romanian judge as part of an inquiry concerning allegations about his wife the rules on immunity may not have been respected. The Court has requested the Romanian Government to indicate whether they have grounds for asking the Court to waive the judge’s immunity. Under the terms of Article 4 of the Sixth Protocol1 only the plenary Court is empowered to waive a judge’s immunity,” according to the ECHR statement. “At the present time no request for a waiver of the immunity has been presented to the Court,” the statement goes on. The Romanian National Anticorruption Agency (DNA) responded to the ECHR’s statement by saying that the investigation is not targeting Corneliu Birsan’s activities as an ECHR judge, but his wife, Gabriela Birsan, as a Romanian judge. On October 6, DNA searched a property owned by Gabriela and Corneliu Birsan. The search was based on a case in which the Romanian judge Gabriela Birsan is investigated for corruption. The DNA raiding was contested by the two judges at both the Supreme Court and the Superior Council of Magistracy, where the appeals have been rejected. Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com (photo source: ECHR)