Thousands
\nof people again took to the streets on Sunday evening demanding the government
\nmade up of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and the Alliance of Liberals and
\nDemocrats (ALDE) to scrap their draft emergency orders that would grant
\ncollective pardon and decriminalise some offences. According to the drafts, the
\ngovernment intends to pardon convicts sentenced to less than five years for
\ncommitting certain crimes and cut sentences by half for all prisoners aged over
\n60. The pardon might be conditioned on the payment of damages set by Courts within
\none year after the offender is released from prison. The draft emergency orders
\nalso bring changes to the criminal codes. They stipulate that denouncers will
\nno longer be exempt from criminal responsibility unless they file their
\ndenouncement within six months after the offence was committed. Moreover, the
\nact of abuse of power causing financial damage of less than 50,000 euros will
\nbe decriminalised. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The Social Democratic
\nJustice Minister, Florin Iordache, says that these emergency orders are needed in
\norder to ease overcrowding in prisons, as there are by nine thousand inmates
\nmore than the prisons’ capacity and in order to comply with Constitutional
\nCourt’s decisions. Iordache reminded that Romania had already been sentenced at
\nthe European Court of Human Rights for what it defined as the inhumane
\nconditions in Romanian prisons. The Justice Minister also said that 2,500
\nprisoners would be released if the law were passed. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The country’s prosecutor
\ngeneral, the chief anti-corruption prosecutor, the Supreme Court, and the chief
\nof the directorate fighting organised crime, as well as magistrates’
\nassociations and civil rights groups are firmly against the move and the
\nintention to legislate through decrees instead of going through parliament. The
\nlatter have argued that there is a lack of transparency as to the legal
\nframework regarding offences such as corruption, abuse of power and integrity. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
In the city of Cluj, in the
\nsouth-west, in Ploiesti, in the south, in Timisoara in the west and in the
\nnorth-eastern city of Iasi, the general state of mind is outrage: <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
I for one, as a young
\nmember of the Romanian nation, find it abnormal that individuals who stole
\nfrom the state and who have received court sentences be freed. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
I don’t have anything against
\nfreeing people who have stolen a chicken and some canned food, because thy
\ndidn’t have anything to eat, but not offenders who have robbed this country. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Around 30,000 people marched on the streets of the capital Bucharest
\nstopping in front of the government headquarters and the offices of the
\ncoalition parties. Protesters chanted Bucharest is saying NO to pardoning!,
\nIn prison, not in power!, and In a democracy, the place of the thieves is in
\nprison!. The protests were peaceful and no violence was reported. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The head of state, Klaus Iohannis, joined the protesters for about 15
\nminutes. Iohannis, himself an opponent of the government’s recent decisions,
\nsaid he came to the University square to voice his outrage at the corrupt
\npoliticians who plan to undermine the rule of law:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Changing the legislation
\nand pardoning hundreds of convicted politicians, allowing them to continue
\ntheir wrongdoings, is inconceivable. Romanians have every right to be
\noutraged. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The head of the Social
\nDemocratic Party, Liviu Dragnea, has said that by joining the protesters
\nPresident Iohannis has in fact broken the law in an attempt to gain some political
\nadvantage for himself. Some commentators say Dragnea is right in this respect
\nand accuse Iohannis of having breached his neutrality as a mediator. Others,
\nhowever, argue that the programme that has won the Social Democratic Party a
\nlandslide victory in the recent parliamentary elections had no mention of the
\nfact that its main concern will be to release thieves from prison.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Protests were held across Romania against governments plan to pardon thousands of prisoners and revise the criminal codes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":105,"featured_media":71766,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37738],"tags":[31514,28990,116464],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-71765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-in-the-news","tag-prison-pardon","tag-protests","tag-romania-en"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n