Justice Ministry Sends Draft Decrees Amending Criminal Codes For Review – Sources

Romania’s Justice Ministry sent the country’s top judicial watchdog CSM a draft emergency decree which amends the country's criminal codes, as well as temporarily enabling appeals for annulment in past cases judged by the Supreme Court’s five-judge panels, judicial sources told MEDIAFAX.

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According to the draft decree seen by MEDIAFAX, the statute of limitations is effectively reduced for all offences, regardless of interruptions caused by criminal proceedings.

Currently, the statute of limitations is interrupted and restarted for each instance in which an offence or person must be communicated to the suspect in a criminal trial. However, the legal liability is still nullified after two full statute periods have passed since the initial offence, regardless of previous interruptions or restarts.

The ministry’s bill would reduce the latter to span only one and a half statute of limitations periods.

The draft decree also allows convicts who received final sentence from the Supreme Court’s five-judge appeal panels prior to November 2018 to file an appeal for annulment, a procedure which requests the annulment of the sentence based on procedural issues, within a 60-day period after the decree is enacted. Normally, the procedure can be filed within a maximum of 30 days following the decision.

Romania’s Constitutional Court decided in 2018 that the Supreme Court’s five-judge panels had been selected by erroneous procedure since 2014.

CSM will have to grant the decree a negative or positive review.

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