The Constitutional Court (CCR) has admitted on Wednesday the referral regarding the conflict of interest between the Parliament and the High Court of Cassation and Justice (ICCJ – Supreme Court) on the issue of specialized judge panels on corruption, a referral filed by Florin Iordache.
The decision was made by 5 votes for and 4 votes against, out the 9 CCR judges.
The CCR judges have found that there was a judicial conflict between Parliament and ICCJ, due to the failure to have specialized panels. Thus, the files without a final sentence by January 1, 2019 will be re-judged by the 5-judge panels, sources say.
The referral has been postponed several times by the CCR judges.
Liviu Dragnea’s attorneys argued the lack of specialized panels in the file of fictitious employment at the Teleorman Child Protection Directorate (DGASPC). Meanwhile, ICCJ decided on May 27 to sentence the former PSD leader to 3 years and 6 months in jail, final sentence.
The judicial conflict was notified by Florin Iordache regarding article 29, paragraph (1) of Law 78/2000 which reads that: “For judging in first court the offenses provided by the present law, specialized panels will be set up.”
The referral was made by Chamber of Deputies deputy Speaker Florin Iordache during March 16-24, when he had been delegated the attributions of Chamber Speaker Liviu Dragnea, who faced health problems at the time.
Who will benefit from the decision?
Consequently, the CCR decision will influence the files judged by January 1, 2019, if they did not receive final verdict.
Opposition party USR had a swift reaction to the CCR decision, saying it is a “serious blow” that will set free the delinquents with the parties in power.
“The decision made by CCR today could have as beneficiaries all those judged and sentenced for corruption offenses by the 3-judge panels during 2003-2019. On the list is Liviu Dragnea (photo 2), sentenced to 3 years and 6 months in jail in the fictitious employments at DGASPC Teleorman, Darius Valcov (photo 3), sentenced to 8 years by the first court, Viorel Hrebenciuc, sentenced to 2 years in j
Sources say that other beneficiaries could be Elena Udrea, Alina Bica, Constantin Nita, Mircea and Vlad Cosma.
However, sources have told ziare.com that the list would not include Liviu Dragnea, as the CCR decision will not have consequences on his final sentence.
Dragnea’s lawyer rejoices, awaits CCR reasoning
Liviu Dragnea’s lawyer, Flavia Teodosiu, said on Wednesday, after the CCR decision, that she is waiting for the court’s reasoning to find out the limits depending on which she will know how to react, ziare.com informs.
“I have no comment right now. I can only rejoice it has been admitted. It is fair this way. But for the moment I have no comment, not until I see the reasoning. I know it has been admitted, let’s see the limits. I await the reasoning in order to be able to react. It is a conflict, after the reasoning we’ll know what to do,” Flavia Teodosiu said.