Parliament adopted the draft law that provides for the transfer of extradition costs to the detriment of convicts who tried to avoid criminal liability.
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The Chamber of Deputies has decidedly adopted the Government's project proposing the transfer of extradition expenses.
The project was adopted with 259 votes “for” by the deputies.
The initiative goes to President Klaus Iohannis for promulgation.
What the project provides
“(6) The expenses that fall to the Romanian state, in the event that the requested person, the extradited person or the extraditable person, as the case may be, evaded the criminal investigation or the trial, will be taken into account when determining the legal expenses, by the court execution, according to the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code.
(7) In order to recover the expenses caused by bringing to the country the extradited or extraditable person, as the case may be, who evaded the execution of the sentence, the Romanian authorities have the right of recourse to the competent civil court. This case is judged expeditiously and is exempt from stamp duty.
(8) The categories of expenses provided for in para. (7) are established by a decision of the Government, upon the proposal of the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Internal Affairs”, provide for the proposed changes in the project.
The rationale for the project shows that “only in 2023, an approximate amount of 10,025,000 lei was spent from the Romanian state budget”.
“Thus, all these expenses encumber/request the Romanian state budget with additional expenses, which are provided in the architecture of the construction of each annual budget, either of the Ministry of Internal Affairs or of the Ministry of Justice, by the credit authorities”also provides the motivation.
Minister Alina Gorghiu also explained that the 2 hypotheses that the bill considers are:
“- When the fugitive evades prosecution or trial, the costs in question become court costs and are charged to the defendant by the final judgment of conviction (in case of acquittal, they remain charged to the state).
– When the fugitive evades the execution of the sentence (that is, he is already definitively convicted and flees the country) the expenses incurred in bringing him to the country will be recovered through an action in the civil court. The ministry that made the expenses is the one that will initiate the action. It will be exempt from the stamp duty and will be judged expeditiously”.
