The Constitutionals Court (CC) ruled that the amendments made in 2013 to the Penal Code and the Penal Procedure Code, concerning extended confiscation and unjust enrichment, are constitutional. The Court pronounced on the constitutionality of these amendments on April 16, following a challenge filed by the assistant of the people’s ombudsman Tudor Lazar last December, IPN reports.
The author of the challenge said the provisions regarding extended confiscation and unjust enrichment run counter to the constitutional principle concerning the presumption of licit property (article 46, par. (3)), the presumption of innocence (article 21) and non-retroactivity of the penal law (article 22). According to him, for the presumption of licit obtaining of property to be legal and effective, not the culprit must prove how he earned the property or incomes as it is the duty of the prosecution body and the court to prove that the property was obtained illegally.
The CC rejected the challenge as groundless. Its decision is definitive and takes effect when it is adopted.
The amendments made to the Penal Code and the Penal Procedure Code in December 2013 introduced extended confiscation as a safety measure and unjust enrichment as an offense component. The given changes formed part of a package of anticorruption laws.
