A number of civil society organizations signed an appeal whereby they call on the Ministry of Justice not to promote the draft law that “de-criminalizes” economic offenses. The signatories say the bill is designed to free “shrewd guys” from criminal liability and undermines the fight against corruption, IPN reports.
According to the signatories, many of the proposed amendments have nothing to do with the declared goals of the bill and undermine the investigation of the economic frauds committed earlier. The NGOs said it is a new reason for freeing from criminal liability, giving suspended sentences, banning the arrest of persons for crimes punished with less than five years in jail, extending the powers of the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office and increasing the number of criminal cases made the exclusive responsibility of prosecutors.
The bill provides that the person is freed from criminal liability for committing economic offenses only once if this repairs the damage and pays a fine to the state. Among the offenses to which this applies are the illegal entrepreneurial activities, tax evasion, manipulation and abuse with securities, violation of shareholder rights or unauthorized access to telecommunications networks.
According to the signatory NGOs, it is inadmissible for the numerous raider attacks of the last few years and the appropriation of property by fraudulent schemes to be freed from criminal liability as the bill bans the arrest of persons accused of economic offenses. “The attraction of investments cannot be obtained by providing concessions to swindlers. On the contrary, this will send a signal of discouragement to businessmen of good faith,” said the NGOs.
The appeal also says that the introduction of these changes could prevent the competent bodies from investigating the banking fraud and from holding the persons to blame accountable. The signatories call upon the Ministry of Justice and the Government to withdraw the bill.
The appeal was signed by: Association for Participatory Democracy; Association for Efficient and Responsible Governance; Association of Independent Press; Center “Acces-info”; Independent Analytical Center “Expert-Grup”; Center for Analysis and Prevention of Corruption; Information Center GENDERDOC-M; Journalistic Investigations Center; Legal Resources Center of Moldova; Partnership for Development Center; WatchDog.MD Community, Center for Politics and Reforms of Moldova; Independent Journalism Center; Institute of Public Policy; Institute for Development and Social Initiative “Viitorul”, Institute for European Politics and Reforms; Promo-LEX, and Transparency International-Moldova.
