Draft law on pardoning some sentences adopted by Government

The Government adopted on Tuesday January 31, a draft law regarding pardon for certain sentences and some liberty depriving education measures, Justice Minister Florin Iordache announced.

 In an attempt to facilitate the understanding of the actual content of the disputed Ordinance by a non-Romanian speaking audience, Casa de Traduceri translated two versions of this text:

• The draft Emergency Ordinance as it was presented for public consultation on the website of the Ministry of Justice
• The final Emergency Ordinance as it was published today (on 1 February 2017) in the Official Gazette of Romania
• Compare between the 2 versions

"We have adopted a series of measures which aim to avoid a pilot decision at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) and in this regard we have adopted the draft law regarding the pardon of some sentences and several liberty depriving education measures. The second draft law targets the Law for additions to the Law No. 254/2013 regarding the sentence serving," Florin Iordache stated at the Victoria Palace.

According to Iordache, the Law regarding the pardon of some offenses isn't targeting "rapists, acts of corruption, acts of violence, recidivists, suspended sentences," the main concern is recovering the damage.

"The second measure, the one targeting the Law No. 254 regarding the sentences is an initiative of the former Government, which we arranged and put it in accordance with the National Administration of the Penitentiaries (ANP), so it can be easily enforced. (...) It's about the compensation appeal, to every ten days, the ones who are in prison and who benefit from special conditions are basically gaining a day. Practically in a month they gain 3 days," Iordache stated.

According to the Justice Minister, the two draft laws "will go in Parliament in emergency procedure."

Furthermore, according to Iordache, the Government also adopted in the Tuesday meeting measures that target the prisons.

"Today, once the state budget was adopted, we came with additions to the measures for avoiding (...) a pilot decision at the ECHR, by allocating some additional resources for the growth by 50 percent of the food allowance, ensuring the necessary funds for implementing the investments projects and in this regard, (...) there were allocated funding in order to start building tow prisons, each with one thousand places, one in Caracal, in Olt County, the second in Berceni in Prahova County," Iordache mentioned quoted by Agerpress.

Justice independence has been seriously breached by the Government by adopting the Government Emergency Ordinance (GEO) for the modification of the criminal codes, President Klaus Iohannis said on Wednesday, who proposed to notify the Constitutional Court of Romania (CCR) in this case on institutional conflict.

"The only way that I don't accept is for us not to do anything. It is an offense brought to justice. You are in charge with justice independence, which has been seriously breached. My opinion is that we must take attitude not only on a declarative level (...), but also on an institutional level. I imagine that the first step is the CCR notification, because there is an institutional conflict between the justice system and the Government. I am proposing this thing to you, not imposing it on you," Iohannis said at the Superior Council of Magistracy (CSM) meeting.