PSD's Cazanciuc: We are at turning point regarding existence of rule of law

Social Democratic Party (PSD) Senator Robert Cazanciuc, who participated, on Wednesday, at the Bucharest Court of Appeal (CAB), in a protest of lawyers in defense of their colleague Robert Rosu, draws attention to the consequences of lawyers' "induced fear" when they are called to defend fundamental rights.

"I think we are at a real turning point regarding the existence of the rule of law. I will read very carefully the reasoning of this sentence and I hope to be able to penetrate the secrets of convicting a lawyer for exercising his profession. I do not know if, at society's level, there is awareness of the consequences of lawyers' induced fear, when they are called to defend fundamental rights. I hope that those for whom 'fundamental rights are but a luxury' never get to decide on the destinies of the judiciary," Cazanciuc wrote on Facebook on Wednesday.

Cazanciuc claims that the public reports on the grounds for Robert Rosu's conviction call into question the "effectiveness" of Article 24 of the Constitution regarding the citizen's right to defense.

"'The role of the judiciary is not to divide the world into good and bad people, into righteous and unrighteous people, but to make human society work' - these are the words of a lawyer, former judge, heard today on the steps of the Palace of Justice, at a protest meeting of the Bucharest Bar Council, which I attended with several lawmakers. Public reports on the grounds for the conviction of lawyer Robert Rosu seriously question the effectiveness of Article 24 of the Constitution, which should really protect the right to defense of the citizen," added Cazanciuc.

Dozens of lawyers protested on Wednesday in defense of their colleague Robert Rosu, who was sentenced to prison in the case of the restitution of Baneasa Royal Farm in Baneasa neighborhood, Bucharest. The protesters demanded that every person should have the right to defense, which is guaranteed by law.

Robert Rosu, the lawyer of Prince Paul of Romania, was definitively sentenced, in December 2020, by the High Court of Cassation and Justice to five years imprisonment in the case of the illegal restitution of the Baneasa Royal Farm