BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) – Prosecutor Denisa Cristodor made history last fall, launching Romania’s first case against a communist-era prison guard suspected of crimes against humanity.
The 37-year-old is blazing a trail on another surprising front, as part of a vanguard of young women prosecutors and judges shaking up Romanian society by going after its sacred cows: ministers and moguls who bled the state of hundreds of millions, former prison commanders in communist-era prisons suspected of torture and murder.
Most of these women were in school when communism collapsed 25 years ago. Today they are slowly forging an independent justice system based on their belief that nobody is above the law.
Under communism, the justice system was a man’s domain – which shielded fellow men in the ruling elite. That began to change with the advent of democracy and capitalism in the 1990s, when men left poorly paying state prosecutor and magistrate jobs to become lawyers or businessmen, leaving the door open for women. The result: 60 percent of Romania’s prosecutors and judges today are women.
The “feminization of the justice system” is helping Romania shed its status as a swamp of corruption and patronage, said Cristian Parvulescu, deacon of the National School of Political Studies and Public Administration