Justice Minister fights back criticism against pardon draft, criminal codes’ amendment

Justice Minister Florin Iordache said on Thursday morning that that the emergency ordinance draft on pardon is not dedicated to one single person but is trying the repair “a persistent situation in Romania”, referring to prison overcrowding.

“First of all it’s for all those currently imprisoned (the pardon). It’s not for one single person. It’s a system that we see it’s not working. It’s an alternative solution. More penitentiaries will be built, but it will take time. And we are trying to remedy a persistent situation for a long time in Romania,” Justice minister argued.

Retorting to the Wednesday evening protests in Bucharest and several big cities, Minister Iordache also said that the demonstrators against the pardon draft are not correctly informed on the ordinance, saying that he has sent a secretary of state to talk to the protesters. However, TV channels reported that no representative of the ministry had come to meet the protesters by the time the meeting ended.

The minister’s statement comes after the heads of law courts and prosecutor’s offices slammed the ordinance on pardon and the criminal codes’ amendments as being “dedicated”.

The General Prosecutor’s Office retorted that the amendment of the text referring to the conflict of interests would decriminalize the crime itself, while the prejudice threshold for abuse of office “would take several law breaches out of the criminal illegal field.”

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.

At the same tine, another 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.

CSM to send its stance by January 27

The Superior Council of Magistracy (CSM) informed it will send its stance on the pardon emergency ordinance and criminal codes’ amendments by January 27 at the latest, the initial deadline being thus extended by four days at the council’s request. The deadline was January 23, by the CSM leadership has proposed the Justice Ministry to extend the deadline by January 27, while the ministry agreed.