Romania’s Ministry of Justice drafts “anti-fugitive” law

The Romanian Ministry of Justice has launched a public debate on a draft law that stipulates that avoiding the execution of a final jail sentence is treated as an escape, with the punishment for such crime being set between six months and three years in prison.

“The draft law proposes an amendment to Law no. 286/2009 on the Criminal Code, under which the deed of a person with a final jail sentence not showing up to the police station within seven days from the date of the final ruling would be considered an escape and punished as such,” minister Predoiu said, quoted by B1tv.ro.

The ministry motivates the proposed amendment by the increasing number of convicts fleeing the country before the execution of their sentences.

Former minister of tourism Elena Udrea is currently in Bulgaria, where judges are not sure whether the conditions in Romanian jails are decent enough, and former Bucharest mayor Sorin Oprescu is seeking political asylum in Greece while the judges have to decide on the extradition request.

Both of them were recently given jail sentences, and both of them managed to flee the country just before the court’s ruling.

At the same time, in both cases the trials have lagged long enough not to allow prosecutors to keep the defendants in Police custody or even under some form of supervision.

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