Update2 – Justice Minister: GEO issued if the bill on Criminal Codes is not adopted, Gov’t sources deny. Four-day protests at Sibiu Court

Justice Minister Tudorel Toader has said on Tuesday, during the parliamentary special committee debates (aka. Iordache committee), that the ministry has drawn up the draft bill according to the European Parliament Directive on the benefit of doubt and on the right to attend the lawsuit, and that the draft bill was adopted by the Government before being submitted to Parliament for debates and amendments. Toader said the deadline for enforcing the Directive is April 2018, adevarul.ro informs.

“If not, an emergency ordinance is justified in order to transpose the Directive, if the Parliament does not act in this regard. If the bill, for one reason or another, fails to be approved by Parliament and to be published by the Official Gazette, in order to have judicial effects, the Government is compelled to issue an emergency ordinance,” the Justice Minister said.

Toader added that for “transposing the Directive we have to give up the subjective component in the act of justice within the Criminal procedure Code.” Actually, Tudorel Toader believes two phrases should be eliminated: ‘reasonable doubts’ and ‘reasonable suspicion’. Minister Toader will submit to Parliament several pages with proposals to amend the Criminal Procedure Code to replace the two phrases by ‘beyond any doubt’.

Gov’t says no GEO on Criminal Procedure Code

Later in the day, Government sources have said the Executive will not issue an emergency ordinance to amend the Criminal Procedure Code.

“As long as a draft bill in on parliamentary debate, the Executive does not intervene by an Emergency Ordinance. There is a custom, the Government does not issue an ordinance on the same topic,” Government sources said on Tuesday.

Justice Minister on magistrates’ protests: I will document if they have violated the law

Justice Minister Tudorel Toader has said on Tuesday, referring to magistrates’ protests on Monday throughout the country, that they can stage protests as citizens, whereas as magistrates they have to observe the law. Toader said he would document to find out if they have violated the law.

“As citizens, organised or spontaneous, they can stage protests. As magistrates, they have to observe the law, the fundamental law, the special laws,” Justice Minister Toader said Tuesday morning.

About 500 prosecutors and judges have gathered on Monday, in front of the Bucharest Court of Appeals, to protest against the proposed amendments to the Criminal Codes and to the laws of justice. Consequently, the Bucharest Court of Appeals said in a release the protest took place upon the private initiative of several judges.

Hundreds of magistrates protested also in Salaj, Maramures, Bistrita Nasaud, Galati, Braila, Covasna and Brasov.

Also on Monday, the Superior Council of Magistracy (CSM) has sent an open letter on Monday to the chairman of the Special Parliamentary Committee on the Laws of Justice, Florin Iordache, reading that “Justice must remain one of the state powers, of the righteous people.”

CSM chairman Mariana Ghena warned that there may be some protests of magistrates on Monday, from certain courts and prosecutor’s offices “on a scale and duration that at this moment we cannot estimate.”

Prosecutor General: An anti-corruption lesson

In turn, Prosecutor General Augustin Lazar, has commented on the magistrates’ protests. “It is good news, looking at the bright side, in the sense that we have magistracy at European level, a mature magistracy, aware of the values of European culture, capable to defend the justice independence. This is an anti-corruption lesson at European level, coming from the magistracy in Romania,” Lazar said on Tuesday.

Four-day protest at Sibiu Court against the amendments to the laws of justice

The judges in Sibiu have staged a first protest on Tuesday, against the amendments to the Criminal Code. They have decided to stop the work for an hour every day. The protest started on Tuesday, digi24.ro informs.

The Sibiu Court management has issued a release announcing four days of strike against the amendments to the laws of justice.

Sibiu Court’s spokesperson Ana-Maria Langtaler said: “Given the amendments envisaged to the laws of justice, by ignoring the negative opinion of the Superior Council of Magistracy (CSM), of the opinion expressed by more than 4,000 magistrates and of the European Commission recommendations and in regard to the initiative to amend the criminal legal framework, which leads to an inefficient criminal justice, for defending the rule of law and justice independence, concern has been expressed on the negative consequences of the new provisions on the statute and professional interests of Romanian judges and prosecutors and has unanimously decided a public protest against all the above mentioned, by suspending the activity in court during December 19-22, 2017, during 11.30h-12.30h.”