Gregorian Bivolaru / MISA case debated in the European Parliament

Gregorian Bivolaru / MISA case debated in the European Parliament

Press-Release 4/11/2012 - Soteria International

The Romanian judicial system scrutinized in the European Parliament.

Member of European Parliament will bring it further to the European Commission.

The Gregorian Bivolaru / MISA case again in the spot-light in Brussels.

On Wednesday 11th of April The NGO Soteria International kept a conference in the European Parliament on the topic of abuses and irregularities of the Romanian judicial system in the Gregorian Bivolaru / MISA case. In the conference participated Members of European Parliament and media. This conference comes at the culmination of a work of several weeks of Soteria International in the European Parliament which has already generated letters signed by a big number of Members of European Parliament from all political blocks to the Romanian Prime-Minister and Minister of Justice, expressing their concern over reports of violations of correct judicial process in this case.

In the conference spoke representatives from Soteria International, Mihai Stoian representative of MISA, as well as special gust and key-note speaker Dr. Gabriel Andreescu – founder of APADOR-CH Human Rights NGO in Romania and who is the author of a comprehensive study of the case.

Dr. Gabriel Andreescu: ''We can't have a Romanian normal system of justice, we can't have a normal Romanian democracy without solving the MISA case''

Dr. Andreescu presented 4 statements:

''The blatant case in 2004 (the raid of the police forces on houses of MISA members – S.I.) was an attempt to destroy MISA. What we see now is a need for those responsible for the repression in 2004 to cover the case, to respond to the situation they created''.

''The MISA case presents a continuity between what happened before 1989 during the communist regime and after the revolution. During the days of the communist regime yoga was forbidden. If authorities heard about you exercising yoga you would suffer consequences. In cases that people would meet together (to practice yoga – S.I.) for sure in some hours the Securitate would be ready to interrogate and beat you. After 1989 (the Romanian revolution – S.I.) the people from the Securitate preserved their positions. The Securitate became the Romanian Intelligence Service. The same prosecutes, the same judges. The people having these positions continued their work and had the same mentalities and interfered with the yoga movement which emerged in that time. The case became a political case. The persons in these positions had to explain why they acted against Gregorian Bivolaru and his colleges and therefore they tried to prove that they were guilty.''

''The infringement of Human Rights in the case of MISA was the most aggressive action against freedom and liberty in Romania in the 1990's. The number of people involved and the level of the infringement affords me to say this.''

''In the MISA case we have a double problem. One is of Human tragedy: I know young women who suffer panic when they meet policemen, a woman who lost her health because being sent to the psychiatric hospital, a woman who lost the custody over her child because she was a yoga member and the custody was given to the husband who brutalized the boy. These are only a few examples. The other problem is the tragedy of the system. In order to cover the mistakes all the institutions and politicians had to cooperate against the truth, against the law, against the procedures, against the foreign observers. From this point of view I can say that we cant have a Romanian normal system of justice, we cant have a normal Romanian democracy without solving the MISA case''.

This conference, coming less then 24 hours before the Romanian Supreme Court is to rule on the case of the state of Romania Vs Gregorian Bivolaru, generated further awareness in the European Parliament about the irregularities of this case. Director of Soteria International, Arthur Lederer said ''The case of the state of Romania Vs Gregorian Bivolaru / MISA is presented by Soteria International in the European Parliament as a clear example of the symptomatic re-occurrence of severe violations of judicial due process which prove that the judicial system in Romania is in need of urgent reform. What is needed is that Europe will intervene in order to correct these irregularities which are symptomatic to the Romanian judicial system.'' As an immediate outcome of the conference several more Members of European Parliament have signed letters addressing the Romanian Prime-Minister and Minister of Justice on this matter. One Member of European Parliament announced his intention to use his Parliamentarian right and address an inquiry to the European Commission regarding this case.

Criticism of the Romanian Judicial system has come in the last month also from the government of the Netherlands, which has vetoed the joining of Romania to the Schengen treaty for this reason.

Mihai Stoian, representative of MISA, raised further questions in the conference regarding the state of justice in Romania in connection to the case of Romania Vs Gregorian Bivolaru: ''The state authorities came with documents that prove that the phones were tapped years before any official investigation was opened, even though they denied this. They say the reason for tapping is national security and the fact that the yoga movement is an extremist dangerous movement for the state. Now these documents are put forward in a file which addresses a domestic investigation, a fact which does not only shows some interferences of the special services in justice but the fact that these two separate state organs work together, a fact which is illegal.''