Radio România Internațional

Tag: criminal code

  • October 8, 2024 UPDATE

    October 8, 2024 UPDATE

    Commemoration – The Chamber of Deputies in Bucharest hosted an event, on Tuesday, to commemorate the victims of the terrorist attack of 7th October 2023 in Israel. Representatives of the embassies accredited in Bucharest, senior officials, diplomats, victims and survivors of the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023 attended the event. The participants strongly condemned the aggression of the Hamas group against the State of Israel and launched a call for the release of the hostages from the Gaza Strip. The ambassador of the State of Israel in Bucharest, Lior Ben Dor, declared that the terrorist attack of October 7 represents the greatest tragedy after the Holocaust. The representatives of the State of Israel thanked the Romanian authorities for the gestures of solidarity and friendship shown without reservations. On Monday, one year after the Hamas attacks against the State of Israel, the Romanian government reiterated its firm condemnation, as well as the appeals for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages still held captive by the terrorist organization.

     

    Law – The Chamber of Deputies in Bucharest on Tuesday passed a bill stipulating that causing or facilitating prostitution or obtaining a profit from prostitution by minors is punishable with 7 to 15 years in prison or 10 to 20 in case of persons with previous convictions for crimes against sexual freedom and integrity, child pornography, people trafficking, child trafficking and pimping. The bill amends and supplements the Criminal Code in respect of the criminalization of people trafficking and pimping. The crime of exploitation will also include obliging a person to commit acts covered by criminal law.

     

    Tennis – The Romanian-Spanish pair Monica Niculescu/Cristina Bucşa qualified, on Tuesday, in the round of 16 of the doubles of the WTA 1,000 tennis tournament in Wuhan (China), which has total prizes worth over 3.2 million dollars. The two athletes defeated the pair Demi Schuurs (Netherlands)/Luisa Stefani (Brazil) 6-0, 3-6, 10-4. Niculescu and her partner born in Chişinău, in the Republic of Moldova, champions this year in Strasbourg, will play, in the round of 16, against the pair Ana Danilina (Kazakhstan)/Irina Hromaceva (Russia).

     

    Nobel – John Hopfield, from the United States, and Canadian Geoffrey Hinton won the Nobel Prize in Physics for their work in the field of machine learning using artificial neural networks. According to a press release from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, “This technology was originally inspired by the structure of the brain. In an artificial neural network, the brain’s neurons are represented by nodes that have different values. These nodes influence each other through connections that can be likened to synapses and which can be made stronger or weaker. The network is trained, for example by developing stronger connections between nodes with simultaneously high values.”

     

    Heritage – Top heritage experts and European and Romanian high-ranking officials gathered in Bucharest to discuss public policy priorities for the protection of cultural heritage at EU level as part of the European Cultural Heritage Summit held between the 6th and the 8th of October. The event was organized by the Europa Nostra network under the patronage of the Romanian president and with the support of the European Commission, the Ministry of Culture and Bucharest City Hall. Researchers, decision makers, artists, historians and leading figures from civil society and the community of European heritage met on Tuesday for an event entitled “European Heritage Policy Agora – Upholding Quality Principles in Heritage Conservation”. Talks focused on the concept of quality in the restoration and preservation of cultural heritage, as well as the priorities for the future agenda of the European Commission. The participants analyzed the links between the EU’s major policies, such as the Green Deal and New European Bauhaus, and the key documents on the preservation of heritage, such as the European Quality Principles and the Davos Baukultur Quality System.

  • No value threshold for abuse of service

    No value threshold for abuse of service

    Amending the Criminal and Criminal Procedure Codes is a milestone within the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, therefore an obligation assumed by Romania in exchange for the money promised by the European Union. The latest changes target abuse and negligence in the service. Coming from the Senate, where they had triggered a scandal, with the ruling coalition voting for a threshold of 250,000 lei up to which abuse and negligence in the service would not be considered a crime, the bills were drastically amended by the deputies, who eliminated any value threshold . They proceeded in this way, although the Ministry of Justice had proposed, according to the version adopted by the Senate and blamed by the opposition and the press, a much lower threshold, of 9,000 lei, from which the two acts would have been criminalized.



    Successive thinking and unthinking within the coalition, promptly criticized by the opposition parties, eventually led to the removal of the threshold for abuse of office. Thus, according to the article, the act of the civil servant who does not perform an act provided by a law or performs it in violation of a provision included in such a normative act, causing damage or an injury to the rights or legitimate interests of a natural or legal person is punishable by imprisonment from 2 to 7 years and loses the right to hold a public office. The threshold for negligence in the service was also removed, in which case the sanction is either imprisonment from 3 months to 3 years, or a fine. The absence of any value threshold could raise problems of unconstitutionality. The Court had previously established that a value threshold for the criminalization of the act is necessary, as long as a damage caused by the said act is calculated.



    Amending the Criminal Procedure Code has the potential to generate controversy too. The reason is that the possibility of using interceptions made by the specialized services as evidence in the case of several offenses, including tax evasion and corruption, has been maintained. Although part of the coalition, the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania abstained from voting in this case. The leader of the party, Kelemen Hunor, said that the intelligence services have nothing to do with the criminal process. If the Romanian Intelligence Service has a role in the criminal process, we can no longer talk about independent justice and we are going back 10 years ago, the UDMR leader warned. The matter deserved a serious debate in Parliament. For years, the services have been accused by all parties of being involved in the political game, of opening cases that could compromise one politician or another. And the use as evidence in corruption processes of records obtained by services through specific means risks fueling suspicions on this topic. (MI)


  • April 5, 2023 UPDATE

    April 5, 2023 UPDATE

    Law. The Romanian Chamber of Deputies has adopted with 191 votes in favor, 66 against and 12 abstentions the bill amending the Criminal Code and focusing on office abuse and negligence in the service. The law eliminates all the amendments previously adopted by the Senate, including the introduction of a money threshold for offenses that constitute abuse of office, as requested by the Constitutional Court. The Senate had previously introduced a €50,000 threshold, which the Justice Ministry subsequently reduced to €1,800. The legal committee on Tuesday discarded this amendment as well as the introduction of a threshold for offenses that constitute negligence in the service. The Chamber of Deputies is the decision-making forum in this matter.



    Tanks. In Bucharest, the Ministry of National Defense requested the Parliaments prior approval for the purchase of 54 modernized Abrams tanks from the American army, including the related ammunition and training simulators. The purchase will take place through a “Government to Government” agreement. The increase in the defense budget to 2.5% of the GDP starting this year created the conditions for the initiation of endowment programs strictly necessary to accelerate the modernization of the Romanian Army, the request states.



    Aid. Romania will contribute another 750,000 dollars to the Voluntary Fund for Strengthening the Defense Capacity of the Republic of Moldova addition to the contribution of 600,000 dollars granted last year. The announcement was made on Wednesday, by the Romanian Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu, at the North Atlantic Council in Brussels. According to a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the sum adds to a new contribution of 830,000 dollars for the Voluntary Fund for the Comprehensive Assistance Package for Ukraine, announced on the first day of the NATO meeting. Wednesdays discussions in Brussels focused on the implementation of the decisions made at the Madrid Summit, support for Ukraine and strengthening cooperation with other partner states, NATOs “Open Doors” policy and the allied commitment to fair sharing of responsibilities – the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced.



    Moldova. The European Commission has approved the second tranche of 50 million euros for the Republic of Moldova, out of the total aid of 150 million intended to maintain the macroeconomic stability of the country. The financial support is intended to help the Republic of Moldova, which is directly affected by the consequences of Russias aggression against Ukraine. The European executive specified that the Republic of Moldova has fulfilled the conditions to which it committed itself in order to receive the financial aid: it has strengthened the governance of the public administration and met the conditions regarding public investments. Also, the Chisinau government has made progress in the financial sector, by adopting a new public strategy. Another positive development was observed in the field of compliance with the law and the fight against corruption.



    Car insurance. The Romanian Government has passed the draft decision on capping the mandatory car insurance fees for six months at the level of February 28th, 2023. Already postponed twice in the last eight weeks, the document is needed to stop the rampant increase in civil liability car insurances, the government argues. The measure was taken after the Financial Supervisory Authority decided to withdraw the license of Euroins, the company that held one third of the car insurance market in Romania. The decision to cap the fees was made to protected drivers from an experience similar to that two years ago, when another leader on the market, City Insurance, went bankrupt and the fees rocketed.



    Inflation. The National Bank has decided to maintain its monetary policy interest rate at 7% per year, also preserving the reference interest rate for Central Bank loans at 8% per year, and for deposits at 6% per year. The decision reflects the latest macroeconomic developments. The Bank forecasts an increase in the annual inflation rate over the coming period. The inflation rate dropped from 16.37% in December 2022 to 15.52% in February 2023, which largely corresponds to the Banks forecast. (MI)

  • July 3, 2021

    July 3, 2021

    Covid – The entire territory of Romania remains in the so-called green scenario related to the spread of the new coronavirus. 401 infected people are still in hospital, of whom 66 in intensive care. The authorities on Saturday announced 58 new cases of COVID-19, out of more than 23,000 tests performed in 24 hours. 4 deaths were reported in the same interval, besides another 27 from the past months.



    Vaccines — Ireland has agreed in principle to buy one million doses of COVID-19 vaccine from Romania – a spokesman for the Irish government said, days after Romania sold another million doses of the vaccine to Denmark. The doses available in Romania exceed the demand for vaccination from the Romanian population, where vaccination reticence is spreading due to rooted distrust in state institutions, misinformation campaigns and lack of public awareness – international media report. Ireland currently has one of the highest COVID-19 vaccination rates in Europe. About 45% of its adult population of 3.8 million people was fully vaccinated and 65% with at least the first dose. The Irish government hopes that its decision to speed up youth vaccination will slow the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus and will allow for the reopening of the lagging economy.



    National register – Romanian police have launched a national register with the names of those who have committed sexual crimes or exploited people. The information in the register can reach courts, authorities, schools, health or social protection institutions, as well as organizations whose activity involves direct contact with children, the elderly or people with disabilities. Such a register had been requested for several years by NGOs involved in victim protection. On the other hand, criminal liability for crimes of trafficking and exploitation, sexual assault, and torture of children is no longer prescribed in Romania — according to a law promulgated on Thursday by President Klaus Iohannis. The law amends articles of the Criminal Code and also stipulates that the punishment for failing to report such crimes is increased and criminalizes the failure to report such crimes as trafficking and exploitation of vulnerable persons or crimes against the freedom and sexual integrity of a child or resulting in the death of a child.



    Rugby –Romania’s national rugby team is meeting, tonight, on home ground, in a test match, Argentina’s prestigious national team. The match that will officially inaugurate the Arch of Triumph National Rugby Stadium in Bucharest is an opportunity for Romanian players to play against a top team – said the Romanian teams English coach, Andrew Robinson. Argentina ranks 9th in the world rankings, while Romania is ranked 18th. Romania was to play another test match, against Scotland, on July 10, also in Bucharest, but the match was canceled due to several contaminations with COVID-19 in the British team.



    Tennis – Romanian Sorana Cîrstea (45 WTA) is taking on, today, the British player Emma Răducanu (338 WTA) whose father is Romanian, in the third round of the Wimbledon tennis tournament, the year’s 3rd Grand Slam tournament. Cîrstea is the last Romanian woman left in the womens singles. In the doubles, the Romanian-Ukrainian pair Raluca Olaru / Nadia Kichenok, on Friday reached the eighth finals, where they could meet the Romanian pair Andreea Mitu / Monica Niculescu, if they also qualify to that stage. (LS)

  • Imprescriptible crimes in the Criminal Code

    Imprescriptible crimes in the Criminal Code

    The COVID-19 pandemic has generated the ‘ideal circumstances’ for human trafficking to develop globally. Governments have channelled their resources on the health crisis and human traffickers have taken advantage of the most vulnerable persons — shows an annual report of the US State Department that looks into the human trafficking situation from 188 countries of the world.



    US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, estimates that 25 million people, including minors, are victims of this type of trafficking, which includes prostitution and forced labor. There are lots of examples from all over the world. In India and Nepal, young girls from poor rural areas have been forced to marry to help their families.



    In the United States, the United Kingdom and Uruguay, there were landlords who forced their tenants unable to pay their rent to have sexual relations with them. For the first time for a NATO member country, Turkey has been accused of having recruited and used child soldiers in Syria and Libya. 11 countries are accused of directly trafficking people: Afghanistan, Myanmar, China, Cuba, Eritrea, North Korea, Iran, Russia, South Sudan, Syria and Turkmenistan. “Governments should protect and serve their citizens, not terrorize and subjugate them for profit” said Antony Blinken.



    Although a member of the European Union, Romania is not immune to similar horrors. In 2018, 14 individuals from Berevoieşti-Argeş (south) received prison sentences between 4 and 18 years, because they had literally reduced to slavery 40 young people and children. Cases of child sexual abuse, forced prostitution, torture frequently go to court and make the headlines on news TV stations. On Thursday, the Romanian President, Klaus Iohannis, promulgated the law amending the Criminal Code according to which the criminal liability of aggressors will not be prescribed in the case of crimes of slavery, human trafficking, sexual assault and torture of children.



    The law also provides for increasing punishments in case of failure to report the respective crimes. The law equally stipulates an increase by one third of the special length of sentences in cases of child pornography perpetrated by a person who had previously committed a crime against the freedom and sexual integrity of a child, a child pornography crime or the crime of pimping a child or if the offence endangered the child’s life.



    Also this week, the Romanian Police made operational the digital National Register including individuals who have committed sexual crimes, have exploited people or children. According to the authorities, this register provides information on and allows for the supervision and rapid identification of persons involved in the trafficking and exploitation of vulnerable persons, in crimes against one’s sexual freedom and integrity. (LS)

  • September 4, 2018 UPDATE

    September 4, 2018 UPDATE

    MEETING – The meeting of the Supreme Defence Council was suspended, and the Government must come up with a new budget adjustment proposal, after the Council members failed to reach an agreement on the current plan, the President of Romania Klaus Iohannis announced on Tuesday. The head of state asked the Cabinet to come up with a plan to eliminate the “unaccountable cuts in the budgets of national security institutions. The President decided to convene the Supreme Defence Council after the Government formed by the Social Democratic Party and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats criticised him for obstructing the first budget adjustment of this year, one concerning salaries, social assistance expenditure, the funding of activities to fight the African swine fever and Romanias contribution to the EU budget. Iohannis replied that the Government was free to adjust the public budget at any time, except for the part concerning the national security field. He also said that the Social Democratic Party is building an irresponsible budget, which cannot be implemented in practice.




    HEARINGS – At the request of the Social Democratic Party in power, the Defence Committee of the Romanian Senate cancelled Tuesdays hearings concerning the violent clashes during the August 10th anti-government protest in Bucharest. Originally invited to take part were the Interior Minister Carmen Dan, the coordinator of the riot police intervention, Laurenţiu Cazan, and the Prefect of Bucharest Speranţa Cliseru. Hearings on the same topic were however held at the General Prosecutors Office, and they were attended by the Mayor of Bucharest, the Social Democrat Gabriela Firea. She said that investigations would reveal who is to blame for the violence in Victoriei Square, and added that attempts had been made to turn the Bucharest Prefect Speranta Cliseru into a scapegoat. On Saturday during a meeting of the National Executive Committee of the Social Democratic Party, Gabriela Firea requested the resignation of the Interior Minister Carmen Dan, who, Firea said, had blamed the Prefect for the intervention of the gendarmes. So far 770 criminal complaints have been filed, by people injured in that intervention.




    VENICE COMMISSION – A Venice Commission delegation will be in Bucharest on September 13th and 14th, to prepare a report on the recent changes of the Criminal Code and Code of Criminal Procedure made by the Parliament of Romania, according to the web site of this Council of Europe institution. The delegation will have talks with President Klaus Iohannis, the Justice Minister Tudorel Toader, and with officials of the High Court of Cassation and Justice, the General Prosecutors Office, the National Anti-Corruption Directorate, the Directorate Investigating Organised Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) and the Higher Council of Magistracy. The Venice Commission team will also have meetings with MPs, including the members of the special parliamentary committee in charge with modifying the justice laws, with judge and prosecutor associations, as well as with civil society representatives.




    ANTI-CORRUPTION – A new proposal for the chief prosecutor of the National Anti-Corruption Directorate will be announced on Thursday, the Romanian Justice Minister Tudorel Toader says. On Tuesday the last 3 candidates for the office were interviewed by the Justice Minister, while 3 other candidates had their interviews scheduled on Monday. The Minister will select a candidate, who must be accepted by the Higher Council of Magistracy and approved by President Klaus Iohannis. The former chief of the National Anti-Corruption Directorate Laura Codruta Kovesi was dismissed in July, under an order signed by President Iohannis in conformity with a ruling of the Constitutional Court. The dismissal had been requested by the Justice Minister, further to a report that had not been approved by the Higher Council of Magistracy.




    SPORTS MINISTER – The Ambassador of Romania to Paris, Luca Niculescu, Tuesday congratulated the Romanian-born former French swimming champion Roxana Mărăcineanu on her appointment as Sports Minister in France. The Romanian Embassy in France also mentions, in a Facebook post, that Roxana Mărăcineanu was one of the 10 Romanians living in France whose merits were recognised in a gala called “100 for the Centenary, organised by the Embassy in Paris in June 2018. Roxana Mărăcineanu, born in Bucharest in 1975, replaced the former Olympic fencing champion Laura Flessel, who resigned as sports minister in France.


    (translated by Ana-Maria Popescu)

  • The Justice System and the Fight Against Corruption

    The Justice System and the Fight Against Corruption

    Sworn in on February 23, Justice Minister Tudorel Toader was entrusted with the mission of making good on the serious blow his predecessor, the unpopular Justice Minister Florin Iordache, dealt to the image of the ruling coalition. Seen by the public opinion, the media, the right-wing opposition and Romania’s Western partners as a n attempt to weaken the pace of the fight against corruption and prevent high-ranking officials and politicians from being criminally prosecuted, Florin Iordache’s efforts to amend the Criminal Codes by emergency Government decree prompted large-scale protests earlier this year.



    A jurist, university professor and former Constitutional Court judge with no political affiliation, Toader did not hesitate to take decisions that go against the expectations of the Parliament majority. Last week the Justice Minister said the external audit the Ministry will be making at the Prosecutor General’s Office, the National Anticorruption Directorate as well as the Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism seeks to gather information on the activity of these institutions, which is something that has never been done in the last 10 years.



    On the other hand, however, Minister Toader didn’t call for the resignation of Prosecutor General Augustin Lazar nor for that of anticorruption chief Laura Codruta Kovesi, whom the general public see as spearheading the fight against corruption, but whom many Social-Democrats and Liberal-Democrats see as the founders of the so-called “republic of prosecutors”, where human rights are systematically violated. On Wednesday, Tudorel Toader did not sign off on the amendments the Parliament wants to bring to the draft law on the conflict of interests. The Chamber of Deputies’ judicial committee had previously greenlit amendments brought to articles in the Criminal Code, replacing the phrase “conflicts of interests” with “using public office for discriminating in favour of certain people”. In addition, one amendment stipulated that hiring relatives or known associates would not be considered a crime unless this resulted in damages of “public interest”.



    Moreover Toader explained the institution he is heading is working on a bill that also refers to modifying provisions linked to abuse of office, whereby the ceiling for abuse-related damages is lifted, giving regular courts of law decision-making power as to the form of punishment. The draft law on amending the Criminal and Criminal Procedure Codes, drafted by the Justice Ministry, as per the provisions of the Constitutional Court, will soon be submitted for public debate. Prime Minister Sorin Grindeanu said he called on Minister Toader to consult with all stakeholders regarding this draft law within the next 30 days before calling on the Government to issue an opinion.



    (Translated by Vld Palcu)

  • February 14, 2017

    February 14, 2017

    PARLIAMENT – In a plenary meeting today the Senate of Romania unanimously endorsed an emergency government decree that repeals the controversial amendments of the criminal codes, which generated the current political crisis in Bucharest. The draft is now sent to the Chamber of Deputies. The Government building was once again picketed last night by over 1,500 protesters. For two weeks, hundreds of thousands of demonstrators in the country and abroad have been demanding the resignation of the government formed by the Social Democratic Party and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats in Romania. They accuse the Cabinet of amending the criminal codes in order to exempt influential politicians and local and central administration officers from criminal liability. Concurrently, several hundreds of supporters of the Government request the resignation of President Klaus Iohannis, who they claimed has stepped out of his role as a mediator by joining in the anti-government protests. A referendum regarding the fight against corruption has been initiated by the President, and was approved on Monday by the Senate.



    STATE BUDGET – The President of Romania, Klaus Iohannis, has voiced concern today, after discussing in Bucharest with PM Sorin Grindeanu and the Finance Minister, Viorel Ştefan, about the state budget bill and the social security budget bill, sent to the President for promulgation. The head of state sees the 2017 state budget as problematic, because the budget deficit risks exceeding 3%. In his opinion, the budget bill relies on overestimated revenues and very high expenditure. Yesterday the European Commission estimated that this year Romanias budget deficit would account for 3.6 of the GDP, which might lead to the initiation of the excessive deficit procedure. On the other hand, the economic growth forecast for Romania was improved to 4.4%, which is nonetheless below the 5.2% rate estimated by the Government.



    DEFENCE – Romania will continue to make a contribution to ensuring European and Euro-Atlantic security, in line with its commitments, and proof in this respect are both the allocation of 2% of the GDP to defence, and the American military presence in the country. The statement was made by the Foreign Minister, Teodor Meleşcanu, after the arrival of 500 American troops who will be stationed at the Mihail Kogălniceanu military base in south-eastern Romania for 9 months. The American military also bring the equipment required in order for them to take part, jointly with Romanian troops, in the military exercises planned for this year. The deployment of American troops is intended to strengthen NATOs eastern flank.



    CORRUPTION – The High Court of Cassation and Justice in Bucharest has today postponed for March 28 the trial of the case in which the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies and head of the ruling Social Democratic Party, Liviu Dragnea, is charged with instigation of abuse of office. According to the National Anti-corruption Directorate, Dragnea ordered the fictitious employment of two members of his party with the Directorate General for Social Assistance and Child Protection in Teleorman County in the south. The two were paid from public funds although they were actually working for the Social Democratic Party alone. Last year Dragnea received a suspended two-year prison sentence, for having attempted in 2012 to rig a referendum to dismiss then-president Traian Băsescu.



    RESIGNATION – The US President Donald Trumps national security adviser Michael Flynn resigned last night over a scandal concerning his telephone contacts with the Russian Ambassador to the USA prior to Trumps inauguration. According to France Presse, in late December, as the Barack Obama administration was ordering sanctions against Russia for its presumed interference with the US elections, Michael Flynn was assuring the Russian Ambassador to Washington, Sergey Kislyak, that president-elect Donald Trump would be a lot less strict in this respect. Îin his resignation letter, Michael Flynn admits to having “inadvertently briefed vice-president elect Mike Pence and others with incomplete information regarding his phone calls with the Russian diplomat.



    TENNIS – Romanias womens tennis team will play against Great Britain at home on April 22 and 23, in the playoffs for Fed Cup World Group II. The drawing was held in London on Tuesday. Last weekend Romania was defeated in Bucharest by Belgium, 3-1, in the first round of World Group II. The national team now has to play to keep its spot in the second group. Fed Cup is the most important international team competition in women’s tennis.


    (translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)

  • Pros and Cons of Amending the Criminal Law

    Pros and Cons of Amending the Criminal Law

    Fifty thousand
    people took to the streets on Sunday night in Bucharest alone, and another
    40,000 in cities across the country as well as in Paris and Brussels,
    making this the largest-scale protests
    in Romania since the early 1990s, right after the anti-communist revolution.
    Once again, they demanded that the government appointed by the Social Democrats
    and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats in Romania give up the bills on
    collective pardons and decriminalising a number of offences. One of the bills
    grants full pardon for all prison sentences of up to 5 years, while the
    detention period might be reduced by half for prisoners over 60 years of age.
    Moreover, abuse of office may qualify as a criminal offence only if the damages
    exceed the equivalent of 55,000 euros.


    The Social
    Democrat Justice Minister Florin Iordache claims that the changes are needed in
    order to solve the issue of prison overcrowding and to bring the legislation in
    line with certain Constitutional Court rulings. He has mentioned that Romania
    has already been sentenced by the European Court for Human Rights for reported
    inhuman detention conditions. In a statement on Radio Romania, Iordache
    promised that the pardons would not cover sentences for corruption offences or
    for violent crimes.


    But the
    arguments of the Justice Minister and of Prime Minister Sorin Grindeanu could
    not convince the protesters. Firm and determined, although decent and peaceful,
    the participants in the rallies, mostly young people, resumed the protests they
    started a week ago, when some 30,000 people took to the streets of Bucharest.
    Together with the mass media, civil society, the right-wing Opposition and
    President Klaus Iohannis himself, people criticise what they see as an attempt
    to clean the criminal records of politicians in the ruling alliance who face
    corruption charges. Their outrage is fuelled by the fact that such amendments
    to the criminal law were not included in the governing programme that won the
    Social Democratic Party the parliamentary elections of December 11.


    The media
    supporting the Power in Bucharest first accused the protesters of attempting a
    coup, and then even ridiculed them, writing that Romanians took to the streets
    to celebrate the Swiss Roger Federer’s win in the Melbourne tennis tournament.
    Analysts however note that the Government’s initiative is opposed by the
    Superior Council of Magistracy, the Public Ministry, the National
    Anti-Corruption Directorate and the Directorate Investigating Organised Crime
    and Terrorism. As one observer put it, all of a sudden, the Social Democratic
    Party is deeply concerned with the fate of prison convicts, although it had
    stated that it wanted to rule in the name of people who are not prison
    convicts.

  • Pardoning and the amendment of criminal codes under debate

    Pardoning and the amendment of criminal codes under debate

    Thousands of people took to the streets on Wednesday night in Bucharest and other big cities across the country to protest against the intention of the new government to pardon a series of convicted persons and to amend the criminal codes. “We want justice, not corruption, democracy, not amnesty! was the leitmotif of the demonstrators, who explicitly accused political decision-makers of trying to release from prison their party colleagues, relatives and friends.



    Earlier, information emerged that the cabinet was planning to adopt these measures without a public debate, which made president Klaus Iohannis go to the government headquarters and chair a meeting of Sorin Grindeanus cabinet. The president had previously expressed his categorical opposition to these changes, which he said were a means of clearing criminal records.



    Already published on the justice ministrys website and sent to the main institutions involved for consultation, the drafts of the emergency ordinances in question provide for the pardoning of people serving up to and including 5 years in prison. A move to halve the prison sentences of people over the age of 60 who have in their care minors below 5 years of age and of pregnant women is also being considered.



    Under the planned bill, the condition for pardoning is the payment, within a year of release, of compensations established by court. Also, the pardon does not apply to multiple offenders and persons convicted of violent crimes, crimes against national security and grand corruption.



    The ordinance amending some of the provisions of the criminal codes stipulates that denouncers will no longer be exempt from criminal accountability unless they file their denunciation within 6 months of the moment the crime was committed. Moreover, abuse of office will be considered a crime only if the damage caused as a result exceeds the equivalent in lei of some 50,000 euros.



    The Social Democratic justice minister Florin Iordache says these amendments are necessary to solve the problem of prison overcrowding, considering that there are almost 9,000 prisoners more than detention places and to harmonise the legislation with the decisions of the Constitutional Court. The minister recalls that Romania has already received a conviction from the European Court of Human Rights for bad treatment and what it called the “inhumane conditions in prisons. Iordache said around 2,500 people could benefit from the pardon law.



    On the other hand, Romanias general prosecutor Augustin Lazar said he was firmly opposed to such acts of clemency. He accused the government of a lack of transparency and said the text of its proposals must be analysed by the Superior Council of Magistracy. The president of the Supreme Court Cristina Tarcea also warned that the proposed changes may cause chaos in courts and questioned the legal credentials of the cabinet members.

  • Amending Criminal Legislation

    Amending Criminal Legislation

    The Criminal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code were amended and completed by the Romanian government through an emergency ordinance on Wednesday. According to the technocratic government, the measure was necessary to put the two documents in line with some Constitutional Court rulings. Several EU laws in the field also had to be included in the newly amended package, as Dan Suciu, spokesman for the government explains.



    Dan Suciu: “Naturally this law inclusion should have been done in 45 days. Some were under discussion in Parliament and waited to be endorsed. The government decided to issue this emergency ordinance, which comprises a part of the amendments already discussed in Parliament that were still to be voted upon, as well as some others related to the recommendations of the Constitutional Court.



    According to Suciu, since the new Criminal and Criminal Procedure Codes came into force, there have been no less than 15 Constitutional Court rulings with a major impact on these laws. For instance, the latest ruling was that a prosecutors interrupting a criminal investigation without the courts control and approval is tantamount to the improper use of prerogative powers. Under the new legislation child molesters will be spending more years behind bars. The new legislation provides for tougher penalties for theft and fraud as well as for cyber crime. If the prejudice exceeds 450 thousand euros, the prison sentence will increase by 50%. There is no predictability in the act of justice in the absence of legislative stability, Justice Minister Raluca Pruna, in whose opinion, major pending issues are being solved through government emergency.



    In turn, judge Horatius Dumbrava writes on his Facebook page that by the immediate endorsement of the emergency ordinance, a wide public debate is being missed. The magistrate questions the governments right to undermine the Parliaments legislative prerogatives by resorting to this practice in a Parliamentary democracy. He also comes up with a possible answer: the Legislature is the one which passed the new Criminal and Criminal Procedure Codes, whose texts have often been declared unconstitutional. As the MPs cannot be held accountable for passivity, is the government to be blamed for having resorted to an emergency ordinance to settle the issue?

  • Talks on Criminal Procedures

    Talks on Criminal Procedures

    Consistent with the messages he conveyed during last years election campaign, president Klaus Iohannis has reiterated the idea that the fight against corruption must be fought with all engines on, because this is a scourge that prevents Romania from developing. In an interview on the German public television ARD, the head of the Romanian state has recently stated that he is thinking quite seriously to challenge the amendments made lately by Parliament to the Criminal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code at the Constitutional Court. In his opinion, Romania is now in a stage of fierce fight against corruption, and amending those laws right now is not at all opportune. President Iohannis:



    “In a few years time, when I hope the number of cases of corruption will drop, we will be able to talk about amending these laws, provided it is necessary to do so. On the other hand, fighting corruption is not just my or other peoples hobby, it is a must in Romania, if we want this country to keep developing.



    The amendments brought by Parliament to the Criminal Code, the Forestry Code and the Law regarding the incompatibility of local officials were criticized by the President on Monday, at a press conference he held in Bucharest. Klaus Iohannis again:



    “The Criminal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code are new. They must be left to function for a while, to see if amendments are necessary. I cannot accept the situation in which MPs amend those laws for their own benefit. Therefore, if such laws reach the promulgation stage, they will not be promulgated.



    Talking about the Forestry Code, president Klaus Iohannis said he would not notify the Constitutional Court if Parliament did not comply with his request for reexamination, but he also said that, in his opinion, illegal deforestation was a threat to national security, therefore the issue would be discussed at the first meeting of the Supreme Council of National Defense.



    There has been little talk about the article in the Forestry Code that allows the exploitation of forests smaller than 10 hectares without the obligation to reforest the area, say those who oppose the code. The former minister of waters and forestry, Lucia Varga, has stated that passing the code as it is today, would be a threat to the life of citizens and communities. If this article was not changed, over one million hectares might be deforested without any prior assessment whatsoever. On the other hand, the Competition Council has proposed the elimination from the Forestry Code of the provisions introducing the maximum threshold of 30% for the purchase of wood obtained from national forests and the right of preemption for furniture producers, upon purchasing wood.