Romanian Social Democrat leader says it’s possible to abandon pardon law

Social Democratic Party (PSD) leader Liviu Dragnea said yesterday that the pardon law was aimed at solving the problems in local prisons but eventually got to other justice issues, so the question is "whether it is still opportune". Dragnea added that he is waiting for a wider package of measures from the Justice Ministry that would really solve the problems in the penitentiaries, reports local Digi24. “I’m making a new appeal to the Government and the Ministry of Justice, namely to tell if the pardon law and other projects can solve the problems in the penitentiaries,” Dragnea said. The PSD leader added that he will not let the pardon law pass through the Chamber of Deputies until it is part of a package that could solve those issues. Ever since winning the elections in December, PSD has been coming up with series of controversial justice laws. The most famous one was the Ordinance no.13 which aimed to change the Criminal Code and partly decriminalize some corruption offences. The Government repealed the law after week-long protests condemning the ordinance. More recently, several PSD senators tried to amend the pardon law, which is still under debate in the Senate’s Legal Committee, in order to extend the pardon to people sentenced for corruption. The amendments were repealed and PSD changed the head of the Senate’s Legal Committee. Pardon bill returns to the Romanian Senate’s Legal Committee editor@romania-insider.com