Former Justice minister claims he was ousted for refusing to issue abusive Justice-related ordinances

Former Justice minister Tudorel Toader, who orchestrated much of the wave of actions against the Judiciary launched by Romania’s governing coalition for the past two years, is now claiming he was removed from office after refusing to put his signature on four justice-related emergency ordinances.

• Tudorel Toader is credited with a lot of legal and procedural changes to the rules of justice, which have been blamed on the governing coalition’s attempts to subdue the judiciary and put an end to the fight against high level corruption in Romania for the past several years. He was replaced in office earlier this year.

Now, he claims in a Facebook post that he refused to support ordinances on amnesty and pardon, on changing penal codes and on changing the rules on the formation of judges panels.

His claims come as the governing Social Democrats (PSD) issued a press release on Wednesday evening saying that PSD leader, PM Viorica Dancila and the leader of coalition partner party ALDE, Senate speaker Calin Popescu Tariceanu convened to reject a bill on amnesty and pardon.

• Moves on introducing legislation an amnesty and pardon which would have helped people convicted for corruption have sparked fierce domestic and international criticism. The PSD was forced to stand back on the moves after severe losses in the EP elections and the corruption-related prison sentence applied to the man who ruled the party with an iron fist until June, Liviu Dragnea.