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Justice Minister Tudorel Toader said on Thursday that in case a draft ordinance amending the Criminal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code is promoted, it will not replace the ones in force, but will only amend some provisions.
He explained that a possible project will include the alignment of provisions with the CCR (Constitutional Court of Romania, ed.n.) decisions, the transposition of the two Directives on extended confiscation and the presumption of innocence and the taking over of some of the legislative solutions that were under debate and later declared constitutional.
"If we draw up a draft, that bill does not take effect. (...) It remains to be seen if it is promoted or not. And that is not my decision. (...) If we are going to discuss about an ordinance to amend the Criminal Code and of the Criminal Procedure Code, the Government will not come to replace the two Codes with other Codes, (...) but will come with amendments to what is in force. (... ) If there will be an ordinance, it will have at most two parts and three elements. Part 1. Amendment to the Criminal Code and 2. Amendment to the Criminal Procedure Code. Each party will have three sub-sections 1. Amendment in accordance with the decisions of the CCR (...) 2. Transposition of the two Directives - extended confiscation 2. the presumption of innocence 3. taking over some of the legislative solutions declared constitutional, because they were under debate, were controlled by the CCR and considered constitutional," the minister said at the Senate.
Asked to justify the urgency of promoting such a normative act, Toader said: "The urgency has been since last year, not as of today. The legislator must amend the Criminal Code, the Criminal Procedure Code in line with the decisions of the CCR of unconstitutionality or interpretations within 45 days, which is not what happened. We risk infringement for the non-transposition of the Directive on extended confiscation and the Directive on the strengthening of the presumption of innocence (...) Last year's emergency is even more urgent today.
