Radio România Internațional

Tag: prison sentences

  • Parliament examines tougher sanctions for major crimes

    Parliament examines tougher sanctions for major crimes

    Romania’s electronic monitoring project for protection orders is to be extended nationwide as of October 1, three months earlier than originally planned. The Interior Ministry also intends to apply the surveillance system to people placed on pre-trial or house arrest, two years earlier than planned. On the other hand, Parliament is eyeing tougher punishments in the case of major crimes. After eliminating the possibility that drivers who caused fatal traffic accidents under the influence of alcohol or drugs can get away only with suspended prison sentences, sentences for human trafficking, slavery or child pornography will no longer be suspended. This is one of the amendments to the legislation in the field, which awaits the decision-making vote of the Chamber of Deputies.

     

     

    The new regulations also provide for an increase in the penalties for these crimes. Thus, for slavery, child pornography and human trafficking, prison sentences can reach up to 12 years, or up to 20 years if minors are involved. Romanian MPs are also debating the draft law which will introduce new security elements into the Automated National Register regarding individuals who have committed sex crimes. Thus, it is mandatory for those registered in the sex offenders register to periodically notify the authorities regarding their employment. At the same time, special law-enforcement structures must immediately notify the employers in the education, health or social protection systems, as well as any institution whose activity involves direct contact with children or elderly people. Another provision stipulates that employment or volunteering contracts cease immediately upon being listed in the register, if the individual in question works in fields involving contact with children or vulnerable people.

     

     

    We recall the Government launched the National Strategy for Combating Human Trafficking, a document that establishes coordinated mechanisms at national and international levels aimed at reducing the scale of the phenomenon. In the last two decades, Romania has been recognized as one of the source states for human trafficking in Europe. Annually, 500 Romanians are trafficked, but the real figure may be higher, because human trafficking is a difficult crime to identify directly. Last year, we managed to convince 451 victims of human trafficking to ask for our help, but more efforts are needed in this regard, because the greatest allies of human traffickers are fear and silence, said the deputy director of the National Agency for Combating Human Trafficking, Maria Cristina Stepanescu. (VP)

  • Chamber of Deputies adopts “2 Mai” law

    Chamber of Deputies adopts “2 Mai” law

    Traffickers of high-risk drugs will no longer receive suspended prison sentences, while selling the psychoactive substances is now subject to prison sentences ranging from 3 to 10 years. The new law, dubbed “May 2”, rules out the possibility of serving the sentence on probation in the case of trafficking class-A drugs. The law was launched in the context of last summer’s road accident in the 2 Mai resort on the Romanian Black Seacoast, when a 19-year-old man driving under the influence of drugs ran over a group of young people, killing two. Police officers later found drugs in his car. Members of the Liberal Party, the initiators of this law say the new legal initiative comes in response to rising criminality in the area of drug trafficking. In turn, Social-Democrat deputy Daniel Suciu says drug abuse has long been ignored in Romania, and combating this phenomenon requires the concerted effort of all parliamentary groups.

     

    “Drug abuse is a reality in nightclubs and schools. We’re talking about young people who ruin the lives of their peers. We will vote a draft law to prevent these bastards from receiving suspended sentences”.

     

    Opposition party AUR deputy Gianina Șerban says additional measures are needed to combat drug abuse and trafficking.

     

    “In addition to tougher sentences, which we completely agree with, we also need drug scanners in border checkpoints, detox and prevention centers, if we truly want to help these young addicts”.
    “You can’t go around selling heroin or cocaine, destroying lives and then walk free. Drug traffickers belong in prison. We don’t need another tragedy like the one in 2 Mai”, Justice Minister Alina Gorghiu says. In 2022, over 800 people received final prison sentences for drug trafficking (whether at home or abroad). Of them, half are serving sentences in penitentiaries, but in 47% of these cases the courts of law suspended their sentence. In the first 10 months of 2023 some 10,780 drug-related criminal investigations were launched. At present, the youngest age associated with drug abuse is 12 years old in Romania. The EU Anti-Drug Agency is monitoring 930 new psychoactive substances, manufactured in illegal labs, with serious negative consequences for human health compared to traditional drugs. Their price is lower compared to class-A drugs, making them more attractive to young people, including in Romania. Without being subject to legal provisions, these substances affect how the brain works and produce behavioral changes and dependence. (VP)

  • Sentences in the Colectiv case

    Sentences in the Colectiv case

    October 30, 2015 was the day marking a great national tragedy occurring in times of peace. The fire that broke out that Friday evening in a Bucharest club, where young people had come for a rock concert, took the lives of 65 people, who died on the spot and later in hospital. More than 150 of those who were in the club suffered serious injuries. After 6 and a half years, the court established who the culprits were and gave sentences. The former mayor of Bucharests Sector 4, where the tragedy occurred, Cristian Popescu Piedone, who was the mayor of the neighboring sector 5 at the time the sentence was pronounced, received 4-year imprisonment for abuse of office, diminished by half from the one received in the first instance. In his case, the judges eliminated the aggravated form of his abuse of office crime, which would have brought him in a bigger sentence.



    The three owners of the club have also had their sentences reduced, depending on the guilt assessed by the magistrates, and they received between 6 years and 11 years and 8 months. Also judged in this case were the two firefighters from the Bucharest Inspectorate for Emergency Situations who checked the Colectiv Club without taking the legal measures required by the non-observance of the fire safety regulations. They received definitive sentences of 8 years and 8 months each.



    The pyrotechnic specialists tried in this case will serve 6 years and 10 months each, but their sentences were also reduced. The three officials from the City Hall were acquitted, after they had initially received between 3-year suspended sentences and 8-year determinate sentences. Neither them, nor Popescu Piedone nor the firefighters will pay damages to the victims of the Colectiv tragedy. The Court of Appeal ordered that some of the convicts should pay damages of tens of millions of euros to the families of the victims and the survivors.



    We have all the conditions for treating burns, the then health minister said in the days following the fire. That was a haphazard, if not irresponsible, statement. In fact, the facilities of Romanian hospitals were far from complying with the standards that could ensure real chances of survival for victims with severe burns.



    Moreover, that was the moment that revealed to the public the scale of another phenomenon that the press and public health experts had been talking about for some time: hospital-acquired infections. After admitting its chronic inability to intervene in such a situation, the Romanian state accepted the gestures of solidarity of some EU countries. Some of the Colectiv fire victims were sent for treatment abroad, but for some it was too late. Romania still does not have a burn center, which is a major deficiency according to the PM Nicolae Ciuca.



    Fires resulting in deaths also occurred after the Colectiv fire, many of them even in hospitals. The corruption, incompetence and administrative negligence, denounced then, in 2015, through extensive street protests that resulted in the resignation of the then government, are still sabotaging the normal functioning of public systems in general, not just of the medical one. (LS)

  • Sentences in the Colectiv case

    Sentences in the Colectiv case

    October 30, 2015 was the day marking a great national tragedy occurring in times of peace. The fire that broke out that Friday evening in a Bucharest club, where young people had come for a rock concert, took the lives of 65 people, who died on the spot and later in hospital. More than 150 of those who were in the club suffered serious injuries. After 6 and a half years, the court established who the culprits were and gave sentences. The former mayor of Bucharests Sector 4, where the tragedy occurred, Cristian Popescu Piedone, who was the mayor of the neighboring sector 5 at the time the sentence was pronounced, received 4-year imprisonment for abuse of office, diminished by half from the one received in the first instance. In his case, the judges eliminated the aggravated form of his abuse of office crime, which would have brought him in a bigger sentence.



    The three owners of the club have also had their sentences reduced, depending on the guilt assessed by the magistrates, and they received between 6 years and 11 years and 8 months. Also judged in this case were the two firefighters from the Bucharest Inspectorate for Emergency Situations who checked the Colectiv Club without taking the legal measures required by the non-observance of the fire safety regulations. They received definitive sentences of 8 years and 8 months each.



    The pyrotechnic specialists tried in this case will serve 6 years and 10 months each, but their sentences were also reduced. The three officials from the City Hall were acquitted, after they had initially received between 3-year suspended sentences and 8-year determinate sentences. Neither them, nor Popescu Piedone nor the firefighters will pay damages to the victims of the Colectiv tragedy. The Court of Appeal ordered that some of the convicts should pay damages of tens of millions of euros to the families of the victims and the survivors.



    We have all the conditions for treating burns, the then health minister said in the days following the fire. That was a haphazard, if not irresponsible, statement. In fact, the facilities of Romanian hospitals were far from complying with the standards that could ensure real chances of survival for victims with severe burns.



    Moreover, that was the moment that revealed to the public the scale of another phenomenon that the press and public health experts had been talking about for some time: hospital-acquired infections. After admitting its chronic inability to intervene in such a situation, the Romanian state accepted the gestures of solidarity of some EU countries. Some of the Colectiv fire victims were sent for treatment abroad, but for some it was too late. Romania still does not have a burn center, which is a major deficiency according to the PM Nicolae Ciuca.



    Fires resulting in deaths also occurred after the Colectiv fire, many of them even in hospitals. The corruption, incompetence and administrative negligence, denounced then, in 2015, through extensive street protests that resulted in the resignation of the then government, are still sabotaging the normal functioning of public systems in general, not just of the medical one. (LS)

  • December 24, 2019

    December 24, 2019

    BUDGET – The Constitutional Court of
    Romania announced it has received the notification filed by the
    Social-Democratic Party regarding the manner in which the Government adopted
    the state budget for 2020 and the modifications operated to the emergency
    decree no. 114. The Court expects opinions by January 10 from all parties, and
    will issue a date for the subsequent debate. The Government has passed the
    budget law in Parliament without a debate and a vote, arguing it needed a
    balanced budget that could be adopted by the year’s end. The Government
    accepted several amendments, although none tabled by the Social-Democrats.


    CONVICTIONS – Former Liberal Chamber of
    Deputies Speaker, Bogdan Olteanu was earlier today sentenced by the Bucharest
    Tribunal to seven years in prison for influence peddling, in a case where he
    was charged with receiving 1 million euros from a businessman. The court also
    ordered the seizure of an equivalent in local currency of the peddled sum. In
    another move, former Social-Democrat deputy Viorel Hrebenciuc was sentenced to
    three years in prison in a case where the former head of the National
    Audio-Visual Council, Laura Georgescu, was also sentenced to 4 years and 4 months
    in prison. In the same case, Gheorghe Stefan, the former Liberal mayor of
    Piatra Neamt, and Narcisa Iorga, a former member of the Audio-Visual Council,
    were also handed down prison sentences. The rulings can be appealed.


    RATIFICATION – Romania’s President
    Klaus Iohannis on Tuesday signed the decree ratifying the law on declaring
    November 1 National Radio Day. Central and local authorities can organize
    cultural and scientific events to mark this special day or provide logistic or
    financial support to NGOs and other institutions that organize similar events,
    the law stipulates. The Romanian Radio Broadcasting Corporation and the
    Romanian Television Station can include in their programmes shows and excerpts
    from events dedicated to this day as public broadcasters. In 2019 the Romanian
    Radio Broadcasting Corporation celebrated 91 years of uninterrupted public
    service.


    FUNDS – The European Commission has
    disbursed some 16 million euros to Romania. The funds are non-refundable and
    serve as compensations for the losses incurred this year due to the African
    swine fever virus. The president of the National Sanitary, Veterinary and Food
    Safety Authority, Robert Chioveanu, says the authorities have presented the
    Commission with all the measures taken to combat the virus, as well as the
    challenges the authorities were faced with in their efforts to eradicate it.
    The Romanian official said that, in the last two weeks, some 10,000 checks were
    carried out in traffic in order to limit the circulation of livestock,
    especially pigs. Fines were handed out, dozens of pigs were seized in addition
    to some 2 thousand kg of meat products.


    CHRISTMAS EVE – Orthodox,
    Eastern-Catholic and Roman-Catholic Christians in Romania today celebrate
    Christmas Eve, making all the final preparations ahead of the celebration of
    the Nativity of Christ. On Christmas Eve people go caroling, which involves singing
    ceremonial songs, accompanied by various dances and gestures. Romanian Orthodox
    Church Patriarch Daniel has highlighted the importance of family, which is
    often confronted in present-day society with a series of challenges and crises,
    determined by poverty, migration, depression and alcohol and drug consumption.
    In turn, His Holy Father the Archbishop of the Bucharest Roman-Catholic
    Bishopric Ioan Robu says Jesus is born even in today’s world, such as it is.
    The High Bishop of the Eastern Catholic Church in Romania, Cardinal Lucian,
    also says the blood shed in the name of faith and liberty compels us to take a
    stand whenever the rights and liberties of the underprivileged are being
    discarded. Recalling the words of Pope Francis during his visit to Romania,
    Cardinal Lucian has called for fraternity and dialogue among Christians.


    (Translated by
    V. Palcu)