The Ministry of Justice on Wednesday published the emergency ordinance draft on pardon, which says that sentences up to five years in prison (included) are entirely pardoned, as well as the sentences by fine ruled by the law court.
The sentences for prisoners who are 60 years old, for pregnant women and of the persons who have children younger than five are to be halved.
However, the provision will not be applied for certain crimes such as manslaughter, crimes against the state security, bodily injury, unlawful deprivation of freedom, breach of domicile, blackmail, rape, sexual act with a minor, sexual aggression, sexual corruption, incest, theft, robbery, piracy, torture, insult, escape, coming drunk at work, coin forgery and foreign values forgery, bribe taking, bribery, influence peddling, drug traffic, proxenetism, minor traffic, child pornography, migrant traffic, disclosure of secret state information.
At the same, there are more felonies that will not benefit of pardon: those related to terrorism, money laundering or organized criminality. Neither recidivists will not be pardoned.
The ordinance draft is also halving sentences for the persons who turned 60, for pregnant women or for persons who are taking care of children no older than 5 and also for people diagnosed with terminal diseases, as proved by the forensic expertize.
A draft to amend the Criminal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code also entails the decriminalization of the abuse of office when the prejudice is below RON 200,000. The same draft says that the denunciation can be made within six months at the most from the crimes, while repealing the dereliction of duty.
The amendments are extremely controversial though, with the media and judiciary representantives and civil society saying that these new provisions are mainly dedicated to politicians, to help them escape convictions and get out of prison. Besides, the action of the sentences that are to be halved for people older than 60 are also highly controversial, as it risks releasing from jail dangerous criminals whose jail time would be halved just because they are older than 60.
One of the potential beneficiaries of the pardon emergency ordinance draft is media tycoon Dan Voiculescu, who is serving a ten-year sentence in prison for money laundering in a file related to the embezzlement of the Food Research Institute. He might be among those enjoying the pardon of half of his sentences because he is older than 60. Besides, he might get rid of the obligation to pay the damages in the file in one year time since the release in order to avoid re-imprisonment, as the new provisions say that it’s not the defendant’s duty to pay the prejudice after his release, but the state institutions will have to ensure the prejudice is paid.
Another controversial provision stipulates that those who committed money laundering crimes and have got a sentence for less than 5 years in jail are not to be pardoned, but those who committed money laundering and are older than 60 can have their sentences halved, no matter how many years they have been sentenced to.