The draft law for amending the criminal codes will not include any minimum value threshold for the crime of abuse of office, and another draft will introduce into the national legislation the European Directive on the extended confiscation, announced the Minister of Justice, Tudorel Toader, in a press conference.
Minimum threshold for abuse of office left to the Parliament’s decision
The amendments will be part of a bill to be approved by the Government and sent to the Parliament afterward. In the version issued by the Ministry of Justice, the changes related to the abuse of office will not include any minimum threshold as politicians desire, but the parliamentarians could add this provision if they consider it necessary:
„I did not say that a threshold cannot exist, but I will not include it,” explained Tudorel Toader.
„The bill will be circulated through the legal committees of the two chambers, and when it will get there and meet mister minister Iordache (former Minister of Justice, Florin Iordache – now Deputy President of the Chamber of Deputies) … he, with his legislative experience, might intervene on the text, within his competences, because we are the initiators and they are the decision-makers” and lawmakers, said Toader answering a question.
We remind that in OUG 13 amending the criminal codes drafted when Florin Iordache was Minister of Justice, the abuse of office was considered an offense only if the damage exceeded 200,000 lei.
„Please accept the idea that I know well the rationales of CCR regarding the abuse of office because I was still a judge then. The goal that I have is to transpose the decisions of the Constitutional Court into the Criminal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure. I shall launch for public debate the draft without a threshold.
„He (Florin Iordache – editor’s note) has the perspective of looking to the future. I have the chance to look to his past,” said Tudorel Toader while referring to the criticism from the Vice-President of the Chamber of Deputies on the draft that does not include the minimum threshold for the abuse of office.
EU Directive on extended confiscation transposed into law
The Minister explained that besides aligning the codes with the CCR decisions, another bill has been drafted to transpose the European directive on the extended confiscation that allows the confiscation from third parties in whose names a wealth has been registered.
The directive should have been transposed by October 2016 and the failure of this objective triggered the infringement procedure against Romania.
„The deadline has expired, we are under the infringement procedure and risk sanctions,” said Toader.
He said that took steps to see where the process of recovering the damage is interrupted and said that would analyse whether there are criminal actions performed without attachment of assets, as last year, goods that have been recovered worth only 20 million lei of the total damage noted in the case files with a definitive decision.
„There are final court decisions not yet enforced. I shall send to all delegated judges (a request – editor’s note), to see how many cases they have in which the confiscation has been decided because it is possible that the court order to not have the civil part enforced,” said Tudorel Toader.
Negative opinion on bill enabling employment of relatives to parliamentary office
The Ministry of Justice gave a negative opinion on the Parliament’s amendments on the draft law on the conflict of interests, also said the Minister, on Wednesday.
„We gave a negative opinion on the bill because the bill we talked about today also refers to the amendment of Article 301 and Article 308 on the conflict of interests.
From us, with my signature, a negative opinion has been issued, to not sustain the bill, because we come up with our bill that put them in line.
It is true that we remain here within the limits set by the CCR decisions and the legislators have the entire freedom to make changes beyond the limits set by the CCR. The legislator faces the limits of the Constitution,” also said Tudorel Toader.
The Legal Committee of the Chamber of Deputies gave a favourable report, Tuesday, on a bill amending the Criminal Code, replacing „conflict of interest” with the phrase „use of the function to favour individuals”.
According to the amendments adopted by the legal experts, members of the Chamber of Deputies, the title of article 301 of the Criminal Code changes from „conflict of interest” to „use of the function to favour individuals”.
In the existing law, Article 301 provides that „the act of a public employee who in the line of duty performed an act or participated in a decision that by which it has been obtained, directly or indirectly, a material benefit for himself, a spouse, a relative or an affine up to the second degree inclusive, or for another person with whom has commercial or work relations in the last five years or from whom received or receives advantages of any nature, shall be punished with imprisonment of one to five years and the prohibition to exercise the right to hold a public function.”
So far, ANI identified over one hundred MPs who broke the law because they employed family members in their offices.
On Tuesday, the President of the Legal Committee of the Chamber of Deputies, Eugen Nicolicea, explained the liberalization of the nepotism in the Parliament saying: „If you select a relative who is genius and took the Nobel Prize against of a stupid person who is not your relative, it is obvious that there is no conflict of interest„.
On criticisms from politicians who are members of ruling coalition and risk of being amended
The Minister of Justice Tudorel Toader said Wednesday that if invited, he will go to the government coalition, but said he would do that not to justify himself, but to be well understood, mentioning that he is not afraid of a government reshuffle.
„If I am invited, I shall go (to the coalition – editor’s note). But remember, if I am invited. I am not going to justify myself, but to make myself understood,” said the Minister of Justice.
„There is nothing for me to be afraid, whatever the solution, I am the Rector of the University in Iasi”, added Toader.
On assessment of prosecutor’s offices
About the assessment of PG, DNA and DIIOCT: „This substantive assessment of the three large prosecutor’s offices – General Prosecutor’s Office, DIIOCT and DNA, has not been made in the last ten years. Any activity should pass through a substantive assessment. What should you be looking for? Specific activity, how many cases it had, if there were any causes not worked, if some people has been acquitted, these types of things,” said Toader. He admitted that the World Bank has made an investigation in 2013, but wishes at this moment an exact radiography of what happens in the area of justice. „10 years ago, Freedom House also made a report,” said Toader. „You can see in this report both what a person did and what she did not do,” explained Toader. He said that he does not know yet who will make this report, this is not decided yet. „When you make an assessment of someone, you can assess that person both by what she did and what she did not do, for inaction. At the beginning of this assessment, you will be announced,” said the Minister of Justice.
Pardon is not a solution for overcrowded prisons
The pardon solves only to a small extend the problem in prisons, said the minister, who believes that other solutions should be considered: prevention, the electronic tag, amendments of the criteria for releasing on parole, etc.
Another solution, which has already been discussed several times but nothing has been done so far, would be to turn some decommissioned military units into prisons.
