Draft law on confiscation of criminal assets on public debate

Minister of Justice Raluca Pruna opened the draft law on the confiscation of proceeds of crime for public debate at the end of last week. The draft law, Pruna told radio station Radio Romania Actualitati, is transposing in domestic law the Directive 2014/42/EU.

“The project we opened for public debate at the end of last week is in fact the transposition of a European directive. (…) I would like to invite everyone to read this project and to contribute to the public debate,” Pruna told Radio Romania Actualitati.

The “Directive 2014/42/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 3 April 2014 on the freezing and confiscation of instrumentalities and proceeds of crime in the European Union” is aimed at enabling authorities in EU member states to confiscate and recover illegally-obtained profits resulting from cross-border serious and organized crime. The Directive provides authorities with the minimum rules with respect to freezing and confiscation of criminal assets through direct confiscation, value confiscation, extended confiscation, non-conviction based confiscation and third-party confiscation.

The Justice Ministry has opened for public debate a bill to amend and append the Criminal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure and for the supplementing Art. 79 of Law no. 253/2013 on the execution of penalties, educational measures and other non-custodial measures ordered by the court during the criminal trial.

According to the draft law, “if the individual is convicted of an offense, if the act is likely to provide a material benefit and the maximum punishment provided by law is of four years or more,” other assets than those mentioned in the law will become subject to extended confiscation.

As provided by the draft law on extended confiscation, if the court is convinced that certain assets are the result of illegal activities, it requests the extended confiscation of the assets. It regulates the assets obtained by the person sentenced five years prior and after the moment the crime is perpetrated, up until the crime is reported in court.

Georgeta Gheorghe