December 19, 2019
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Newsroom, 19.12.2019, 14:04
LAW Romanian president Klaus Iohannis on Thursday promulgated
a law, which abrogates the compensatory appeal endorsed by the Chamber of
Deputies, as a decision-making forum on December 4th. The controversial law
endorsed by the former Social Democratic government allowed for the release of
thousands of convicts. Some of those, serving sentences for serious crimes have reoffended. Justice Minister Catalin Predoiu has recently explained that the flawed text of the law put Romanian citizens at risk. He added that the
ministry he leads had drawn up a draft law with measures to be applied in
penitentiaries across Romania, whose precarious state sparked off a lot of
complaints to the European Court of Human Rights. The authorities are chiefly interested
in improving detention conditions.
IMPEACHMENT President Donald Trump has become the third president of the
United States to be impeached when the House of Representatives charged him
with abuse of power for personal gain a move that paves the way for a trial in
the Senate, AFP reports. Only two other presidents were impeached, Andrew
Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998. The Democrats believe that Trump is
guilty of pressing his Ukrainian counterpart to launch investigation into
political rival Joe Biden. President Trump has also been accused of obstructing
Congress by refusing to allow his aides to testify in an inquiry and for
failing to provide documents to House investigators.
CELEBRATION The European Parliament is marking today 30 years since the
anti-communist revolution in Romania. The European Parliament in Strasbourg has
recognized that the sacrifice of the peaceful protesters of that time paved the
way for Romania’s transition towards democracy. 1142 people lost their lives,
over 3000 were severely wounded while other several hundred were imprisoned and
tortured. The MEPs are expected to recommend the Romanian authorities to step
up efforts to find out the truth about the events 30 years ago. Events
commemorating the heroes of the 1989 revolution are continuing all over the
country. Three decades ago, workers in factories in Timisoara, western Romania,
went on a strike and created the first anti-communist organization shortly
before the fall of the country’s ruthless dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. December
19th was the day when the communist authorities tried to hide any evidence
of the bloody repression of the peaceful demonstrations against the regime.
TRAFFIC The Romanian authorities have taken additional measures to ease
traffic at the border checkpoints during the winter holidays when a significant
increase in the number of tourists is expected especially at the border with
the Schengen zone. In order to avoid traffic jams, border police resorted to
additional measures aimed at maximizing the traffic capacity of any border
check point. Over 42 hundred police troops are presently involved in
surveillance and control activities at the country’s borders, sources with the
Romanian border police have announced.
(translated by bill)
