Employees of the Ministry of Home Affairs during March 17 and June 30, 2020 applied the provisions of Article 761, paragraph (1) of the Contravention Code in a somehow arbitrary manner, shows an analytical note produced by the Association for Participatory Democracy (ADEPT). It goes to the fine imposed on private individuals for non-observance of the epidemic disease prophylaxis, prevention or combating measures, if this fact endangered public health. The finding comes after the Constitutional Court on June 30 decided that these provisions are unconstitutional, IPN reports.
In the period (March 17 –June 30), the police warned about 460,000 persons and drew up 2,806 contravention reports based on this article against private individuals. According to ADEPT, the method of differentiating between violations of the anti-COVID-19 restrictions combated through warnings and those combated through fines of €1,100 remained unclear. Moreover, there was a case of police indulgence, when a warning was issued instead of a heavy fine, and the case ended with the infection and death of the offender.
The Constitutional Court determined that the ascertaining agents when imposing fines should prove, while the courts of law should verify in each case apart by which actions or omissions the person endangered public health. If the danger to public health is not determined, the objective side as a constitutive element of the offense is not respected. The CC held the lawmakers should regulate the penalties so that the court of law could individualize them effectively and reasonably or the court of law is deprived of the possibility of guaranteeing the right to a fair trial.
To eliminate the possible uncertainty, the CC also decided that until the unconstitutional provisions are amended, the fines for private individuals who will violate the anti-epidemic measures will vary between 1 and 500 conventional units, which is between 50 and 25,000 lei.
ADEPT noted that during the state of emergency, the authorities hurried to adopt a number of decisions that were later declared unconstitutional, such as the assumption of responsibility by the Government, raising of the €200 million loan from Russia, imposition of disproportional fines on citizens and violation of their right to a fair trial, which is a dangerous signal.
