Having taken effect two years ago,
\nthe compensatory appeal law was repealed on Wednesday in Parliament by
\nunanimous vote. Originally designed by Justice Minister Raluca Pruna, the law
\nwas passed in 2017 by the Social-Democratic ruling power. It was meant to do
\naway with the harsh sanctions Romania was handed down by the European Court of
\nHuman Rights for its improper detention facilities. According to the National
\nPenitentiary Administration, some 23 thousand felons were released from prison
\nunder the new law, of which 19,000 on probation. 2,300 reoffended and were sent
\nback to prison, some of them having committed criminal offences shortly after
\ntheir release, others because they were being investigated in other criminal
\ncases at the time of their release. The National Liberal Party in power, in
\nthis matter supported by Save Romania Union, admits the law was originally
\ndesigned to deal with the precarious situation in penitentiaries, but claims it
\nwas twisted by the Social-Democrats to serve as an amnesty in disguise. Liberal
\nMP Ioan Cupsa:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The law 169 of 2017 denoted an
\nobvious lack of wisdom and goodwill, unlike anything this Parliament has seen.
\nYou knew the effects it would have, but you needed some of your colleagues to
\nbe released earlier from prison, so you let everyone go. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The Social-Democrats defend
\nthemselves, arguing everyone who got an early prison release under the
\ncompensatory appeal law was released by court order. Alfred Simonis, the leader
\nof the Social-Democratic group in the Chamber of Deputies, who voted in favor
\nof the repeal, has admitted to the flaws in the former law, saying citizen
\nsafety prevails over any sanctions Romania might receive from the European
\nCourt of Human Rights for its improper detention facilities. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
We hope that the new Government
\nwill find alternative means of detention, as well as measures to avoid ECHR
\nsanctions. We all agree it’s better to pay compensations, if it comes to that,
\nrather than release people from penitentiaries. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
On the very day the law was
\nrepealed, the Finance Ministry published a draft law whereby the state has
\nloaned 177 million euros from the Council of Europe Development Bank. The money
\nwill be used to build two penitentiaries that will be able to detain 1,900
\noffenders in line with European standards. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
(Translated by V. Palcu)<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Parliament has repealed the compensatory appeal law, which has sparked great controversy since its adoption<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":109,"featured_media":82385,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37738],"tags":[34397,39831,29044,30443,29268,29346],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-83972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-in-the-news","tag-compensatory-appeal-law","tag-detention-facilities","tag-echr","tag-national-liberal-party","tag-parliament","tag-social-democratic-party"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n