In the draft law on amendments to the Criminal Code, initiated by the Ministry of Justice and adopted by the government, there was no value threshold for abuse of official position provided for by the decision of the Constitutional Court, even if this remark was made in the opinion of the Legislative Council.

According to the law, in case of non-acceptance of comments or proposals of the Legislative Council, it must be justified either in the content of the document presenting the project or in an accompanying note. There is no reference in the reasons to the threshold referred to by the CCR, although the judgment in which this reference was made refers to other aspects.

The Ministry of Justice claims in HotNews.ro’s response that there was an accompanying memo explaining that it did not choose to set a value threshold because it considered it neither appropriate nor necessary.

“The appeal to the Ministry of Justice was answered in the sense that “making such clarifications is not recognized as appropriate and necessary, decisions in the form subject to the conclusion of the Legislative Council are agreed, including within the framework of the inter-institutional working group organized at the level of the Ministry of justice, to which the following institutions were invited: the Supreme Council of Magistrates, the Supreme Court of Cassation and Justice, the Prosecutor’s Office at the Supreme Court of Cassation and Justice, the National Anti-Corruption Directorate, the Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism), the Ministry of Justice reports in a response to HotNews. ro, but without providing the requested note.

In addition, representatives of the MoJ claim that, contrary to the clear reasoning of the DRC, “it was clear that the decision on revenue would return to Parliament.”

Obviously, by law, the decision belonged to the parliament, but this did not prevent the Ministry of Justice from making a proposal (n.p.).

MU’s proposal “after the debate that took place after the vote in the Senate”

After the Senate voted for a threshold of 250,000 lei, i.e. 50,000 euros, from which it is possible to talk about the crime of abuse of official position, the Ministry of Justice still made a proposal – 9,000 lei.

How was this amount obtained? “After the debate that took place after the vote in the Senate on the threshold for the crime of abuse of official position provided for in Article 297 of the Criminal Code, the Ministry of Justice proposed a threshold of 9,000 lei, referring to the amount of approximately 2 average salaries in the national economy,” the Ministry of Justice responded to HotNews .ro.

The cited source also notes that “none of the CCR decisions and no Venice Commission conclusions refer to a specific cost threshold, neither in the process of inter-ministerial approval nor in the view expressed by the CSM, no proposal for such a threshold is formulated.”

Predoyu suggested, Chuke and Bode remained silent

The amendment regarding the threshold amount of 50,000 euros, from which it is possible to talk about the crime of abuse of official position, was proposed and accepted by the Minister of Justice Katalin Preda at a closed meeting of the Coalition, which took place on Sunday evening, the party This was reported by the sources of HotNews.ro.

Nicolae Chuke, Marcel Cholaku, Kelemen Hunor, Lucian Bode, Robert Kazanchuk and Marian Neatsu also took part in this.

According to Hotnews.ro’s sources, the released options would even exceed €50,000, and Cuke and Bode had nothing to comment on.

After the decision of the Coalition, the corresponding amendment reached the Senate. The head of the Senate’s legal commission, Cristian Niculescu Cegarlas, told HotNews.ro on Thursday that it had reached parliament via email, but he did not say from whom.

“After the coalition’s political decision on Sunday evening, we received amendments that, according to the regulations, the senators had to adopt. Members of the Legal Commission from PSD, PNL and the UDMR coalition decided to adopt the amendments. The texts were given to me on Monday and I sent them to the members of the committee, and I gave them a deadline to study them until Tuesday morning, when I discussed them and put them to a vote,” Kegarlash said Thursday after the vote in the Senate.

However, HotNews.ro sources claim that the amendment came to the senators directly from the Ministry of Justice.

Interim President of the Senate, Alina Gorgiou, allegedly sent the PNL parliamentary group a directive for the amendments to be passed by a PNL vote.

On Thursday, the Senate adopted a draft amendment to the Criminal Code, which establishes a value threshold for abuse and neglect in the service. More precisely, if the damage is less than 250,000 lei, i.e. 50,000 euros, then there is no crime. This was provided for by Law No. 13, which brought hundreds of thousands of people to the streets, only then the threshold was 200,000 lei.

The decision was sharply criticized by the opposition and several PNL leaders, including Raluka Tsurcan, Dan Motreanu and Rares Bohdan.

The Ministry of Justice later announced that it was offering 9,000 lei for abuse of office. Marcel Čolaku and Nicolae Chuke stated that they support this option.

• New GEO 13: A phrase that further decriminalizes abuse of office and that no one was talking about. Former head of DNA: I think the goal is to prevent this crime from happening

• The PSD-PNL coalition rethinks OUG 13 / Decriminalization of abuse and negligence in the service in case of damage of less than 50,000 euros – draft adopted by the senate

• List of senators who voted for the new Ordinance 13: All PSD, PNL, UDMR parliamentarians vote yes / AUR abstained

• Amendment reviving GEO 13 received by email from plenipotentiary senators after closed-door Coalition meeting: ‘We were given access to amendments that needed to be passed’
  
• Protest on Victoria Square. USR: “You stole 250,000 lei, you ran away. With PSD and PNL voting”, “Mr Johannis, stop!”
• Chuke and Cholaku say they support the 9,000 lei threshold to decriminalize abuse of office: “We will adopt amendments to this law”