Radio România Internațional

Tag: judicial committee

  • Pardons Bill Stays in Parliament

    Pardons Bill Stays in Parliament

    From the Government to the Senate’s judicial committee, then to the Senate plenary and back to the committee for another week. This has been the route so far for a controversial piece of legislation, the pardons bill, which has caused street protests and friction in the main party in the ruling coalition, the Social Democratic Party. The junior partner in the coalition, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats in Romania, sensed its explosive potential and suggested that the bill should be sent back to the same committee which, much to the dislike of the Social Democratic leaders, had significantly altered the text drafted by the Cabinet.



    The head of the committee, the Social Democrat Serban Nicolae, has already been scolded by his party chief, Liviu Dragnea. In a tandem which years ago seemed impossible, Serban Nicolae and the ex-president Traian Basescu, currently a Senator from the People’s Movement Party in opposition, amended the original text so that offences like bribe taking and giving and influence peddling would be pardoned.



    After the infamous government order through which the Cabinet attempted to amend the criminal legislation, a new controversial law was the last thing that the Social Democratic Party needed. Liviu Dragnea was quick to understand this, and asked the parliamentary majority not to meddle with the text drafted by the Government.



    Serban Nicolae complied only in part, and changes have been operated. Among them were, for instance, the full pardon of sentences of up to 3 years, a 3-year shortening of sentences of up to 10 years, the reduction to a half of the sentences for pregnant women and, under certain conditions, full pardon for convicts aged over 70. The Social Democrat Serban Nicolae said that, according to the figures received from the National Penitentiary Administration, a few over 1,000 people may benefit from these measures.



    The report that included these amendments was sent to the Senate plenary, but it was later returned to the committee, proving that the Social Democratic Party leaders disagreed with that document. His back against the wall, Serban Nicolae pleaded for a rational discussion in Parliament. But the National Liberal Party and Save Romania Union, in opposition, question the very usefulness of the law. According to the Liberals, a pardons bill cannot solve the problem of prison overcrowding and of the inadequate conditions in some Romanian prisons.



    Romania was repeatedly sued over these problems, and the European Court for Human Rights has recently given Bucharest 6 months to adopt an action plan to address the situation. A pardons bill, however, is not a long-term solution to this, penitentiary administrators say. And, judging by the reactions in the street, nor does it save the public image of the Social Democratic Party. (Translated by A.M. Popescu)

  • Justice, offenders and politicians

    Justice, offenders and politicians

    The government’s strongman, the president of the Social Democratic Party and of the Chamber of Deputies, Liviu Dragnea, has not hidden his disappointment at the way in which the Senate’s Juridical Committee has so far acted in the case of pardoning sentences for acts of corruption. He announced that the case of the committee’s president, Social Democrat Serban Nicolae, would be dealt with at party level. On Wednesday afternoon, the senators in the Juridical Committee adopted the amendments on pardoning the people who received a corruption sentence that were proposed by Serban Nicolae, by his colleague Liviu Brăiloiu and by the former president of Romania, currently senator of the People’s Movement Party, in opposition, Traian Băsescu.



    But on Wednesday evening, thousands of Romanians took to streets in Bucharest and other cities across Romania to protest against the corruption of the political class, be they in power or in opposition. Consequently, on Thursday, the same committee led by Serban Nicolae voted again, this time to reject the proposals for pardoning crimes such as giving and taking bribe or influence peddling.



    Voting to correct the previous vote were the senators of the Liberal Party, the Save Romania Union and the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania. Abstaining from the vote were of course the representatives of the governing coalition made up of the Social Democratic Party and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats.



    The fact that Senator Serban Nicolae has not yet submitted his resignation seriously mars the image of the Social Democrats, and undermines the respect he still enjoyed among his party colleagues, wrote on Facebook the former Social Democrat Prime Minister Victor Ponta, who is currently keeping a distance from the Social Democratic top leadership. Senator Serban Nicolae tried to explain:



    “Just as yesterday we made a decision, today we made another decision, through the same democratic means, which shows that there was no previous hidden agenda, no fierce contradiction. We have all abstained from voting today because we did not agree with the procedure. We respected the procedure. Yesterday we voted for those amendments, today we have abstained from voting because we did not want to be part of a vote for or against this procedure for submitting to the vote again several amendments that had already been adopted. That’s all!”



    Although his amendment was rejected, the former president Traian Băsescu, has remained consistent with his idea of pardoning people sentenced for abuse of office. Traian Băsescu:



    “In Romania the issue of abuse of office has been treated abusively. I was reading the latest report of the head of the National Anti-Corruption Directorate who said they were working on 2,150 cases of abuse of office. I have compared the situation in Romania with that in Europe. I don’t think we will find 50-100 cases in all EU member states. Obviously, we are applying the legislation in the field in a wrong way, and this has been also shown by the Constitutional Court.”



    Also on Thursday, the Constitutional Court rejected by a majority of votes, as inadmissible, the Ombudsman’s notification regarding an article in the law that forbids people with a criminal sentence to be members of the government. It is the very law that had prevented the Social Democrat leader Liviu Dragnea from becoming prime minister, despite his party’s outright victory in the December 2016 legislative elections. Last year, Liviu Dragnea received a 2-year suspended sentence for trying to rig the 2012 referendum on the impeachment of the then president Traian Băsescu. Liviu Dragnea commented on the Court’s decision:



    “Their decision does not change my attitude, my life, my political activity or my political actions. We have a prime minister whom I support and a government that has all my backing. The decision is not for me”.



    Promptly signaled in the international press, the latest developments in Bucharest show that the fight between the clean part of Romanian society and the politicians with low moral standards carries on. (Translated by L. Simion)