The amendments on the Criminal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code, which eyes the concealed decriminalization of abuse of office and dereliction of duty, as well as the abolition of the indicter’s position, will be eventually carried out through emergency ordinance that will be most probably adopted in the Government’s Wednesday sitting, political sources told Hotnews.ro. They disclosed that the drafts have been slightly revised, meaning the condition of the previous complaint filed by the institution so that the abuse of office should be considered as crime has been deleted, while the prejudice threshold, initially set to RON 200,000, has decreased. However, it’s not clear is the threshold climbed down below RON 100,000, the precise sum representing the prejudice in PSD chairman Liviu Dragnea’s case.
The same sources revealed that the pardon draft would be tabled through a draft bill sent for debate in Parliament.
These options were at issue at the public consultation hosted by the Justice Ministry on Monday. During the debate, a lot of voices asked minister Florin Iordache to withdraw both drafts or to give up their adoption through emergency ordinances or through assuming responsibility procedure, arguing that through these proceedings the Government is actually imposing its stance in an unilateral way, without the possibility that the drafts could be amended.
Justice minister Iordache won’t tell which option will be the final version.
The National Anti-corruption Directorate replied on Tuesday that the impact of the abuse of office decriminalization will be that 2,151 ongoing files will be closed down and it will encourage “the civil servants’ abusive conducts, and their immorality and lack of honesty in solving the citizens’ interests and rights”. DNA also underlines that a potential amendment of the offence would favor both the persons who will commit abuse of office crimes and also persons already charged or indicted for abuse of office.
In its turn, the General Prosecutor’s Office slammed again the Gov’t intention to amend the criminal codes, while warning that decriminalizing the abuse of office “is not meant to transpose the Constitiutional Court’s decision”, but rather “represents a real incentive for the civil servants to repeatedly commit abuse of office crimes on purpose.”