Chamber of Deputies adopts repeal of the compensatory appeal

The plenary sitting of the Chamber of Deputies (Romanian Parliament’s lower chamber) has adopted on Wednesday the draft law to repeal the compensatory appeal after the legal committed had unanimously adopted a favorable opinion on the repeal.

The law has passed by 272 votes and 5 abstentions following an electronic vote.

The move comes after Orban Cabinet had announced early this week they will take responsibility on this bill in Parliament.

The draft law to repeal the controversial compensatory appeal that released on parole over 20,000 offenders before ending their jail time, has been initiated by 10 Liberal deputies in February this year.

According to latest statistics provided by the National Penitentiaries Administration, almost 23,000 inmates have been released from prisons based on the compensatory appeal since October 2017, when the law came into force, until Tuesday, December 3, 2019. Over 2,300 of them repeated offenses and returned behind bars.

The bill was though rejected in the Senate on June 11.

The Chamber of Deputies is though decision-making body in this case, so the law goes to the President for promulgation.

During debates in the Chamber plenary session, Liberal deputy Florin Roman argued this law on compensatory appeal had been the most harmful draft law in the past 30 years and if they had been wiser, MPs could have repealed it since February when only 12,000 offenders were released from prisons.

In retort, PSD deputy Nicusor Halici claimed that the release of criminals from prisons before serving their sentences had been done based on the court rulings and that “only a small part” of those 21,000 inmates released on parole had actually benefited of the compensatory appeal.

USR deputy Stelian Ion pointed out that the compensatory appeal law was actually a concealed amnesty.

“We have to think how we can reinsert those who broke the law, who committed crimes and who were encouraged by this compensatory appeal, knowing that once in prions they will be able to get out earlier. We have to put their reinsertion first. Otherwise, we’ll get back to the same point and we’ll find out they relapsed,” Stelian  Ion argued.