At the hearing of, the Constitutional Court, in the context of the review of laws following promulgation, ruled on the exception of unconstitutionality of Article 13 (5) of Government Emergency Ordinance No 43/2002 on the National Anti-Corruption Directorate and Article 367 (9) of the Code of Criminal Procedure..
Following the deliberations, the Constitutional Court:
- By a majority vote, upheld the exception of unconstitutionality and found that the provisions of Article 13 (5) of Government Emergency Ordinance No 43/2002 on the National Anti-Corruption Directorate were unconstitutional..
- Unanimously, dismissed as unfounded the exception of unconstitutionality of the provisions of Article 367 (9) of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
Article 13 (5) of Government Emergency Ordinance No 43/2002, found to be unconstitutional, reads as follows: “If the prosecutor of the National Anti-Corruption Directorate orders the disjoinder in the course of criminal prosecution, he may also continue to carry out the criminal prosecution in the disjoint case.”
In order to reach the admission solution, the Court found that the provisions of Article 13 (5) of Government Emergency Ordinance No nr.43/2002 were, in essence, contrary to the right to a fair trial and to the right of defence, enshrined in Articles 21 (3) and 24 of the Constitution, and in Article 6 of the Convention for the Protection of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms, on the ground that they infringe the criminal procedural provisions governing the competence of the criminal prosecution authorities, which, according to Decision No 302 of the Constitutional Court of 4 May 2017, published in the Official Gazette of Romania, Part I, No 566 of 17 July 2017, constitute mandatory legal rules, failure to comply with which entails the penalty of incurable nullity.
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The decision is final and generally binding.
The arguments set out in the grounds for the decision of the Constitutional Court will be set out in the decision, which will be published in the Official Gazette of Romania, Part I.
External Relations, Press and Protocol Department of the Constitutional Court