Emergency ordinance to review sentences based on Romania secret service protocols

An emergency ordinance may allow all people convicted to jail following investigations that also involved wiretaps carried out by the Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI) to ask that their sentences be reviewed, justice minister Tudorel Toader said in a talk show on Wednesday evening, August 1. He said he would propose such an emergency ordinance to prime minister Viorica Dancila as soon as the holiday period is over. He added that this ordinance will give Romanian citizens the confidence that justice is served as the Constitution provides. Thus, all cases in which the prosecutors received help from SRI officers, based on secret protocols signed by SRI with prosecution institutions, could be reviewed. “It will allow all convicts that have the sentiment or belief that their sentence was based on illegal wiretaps or protocols to ask a judge to check if this is the case. The judge will rule if the case is retried or not,” Toader said, quoted by News.ro. The secret protocols the SRI had with prosecution bodies and other state institutions have been widely debated in the past year. The debate mainly revolved around the relationship between SRI and DNA, the institution that investigates corruption crimes by state officials. This fueled the ruling coalition’s attacks against the DNA and the claims that the anticorruption department was part of the so-called “shadow state” that aimed to eliminate the politicians in power by starting investigations against them and sending them to jail. The leader of the ruling party PSD, Liviu Dragnea, is one of the top politicians that got a jail conviction that is not final after a DNA investigation. The local media wrote about the ruling party's intention to pass an emergency ordinance to clear some categories of convicted people, at the beginning of July. However, the project didn't get enough support in the coalition. Romania's coalition leaders say no amnesty ordinance today editor@romania-insider.com