July 29, 2019 UPDATE

Investigations into the Caracal murders continue, CCR rules as unconstitutional the changes to the criminal and criminal procedure codes

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Newsroom, 29.07.2019, 19:52

Murders — The head of the Special Telecommunications Service in Romania Ionel Vasilica resigned on Monday following the killings in Caracal (south) that horrified the entire country. Also on Monday, the interior minister Nicolae Moga submitted to the government and the president Klaus Iohannis a report on the actions taken in relation to the case in Caracal. After the report is analyzed on Tuesday by the country’s Supreme Defense Council, it will be made public. During the council meeting the Romanian president will propose measures to avoid such tragedies in the future. He says the resignations of all those who have mismanaged the case are obligatory but in no way sufficient. In turn, the Prime Minister Viorica Dancila decided to create an inter-institutional working group that should draw up a set of urgent measures to reduce reaction time in critical situations. Last Wednesday, 15-year-old Alexandra Macesanu was abducted from the street, sequestered, raped and then killed. Despite making three emergency calls, the authorities were unable to track her location and only entered the house of her captor 19 hours after the girls last emergency call. 18-year-old Luiza Mihaela Melencu met with the same fate in April. Gheorghe Dinca, a taxi driver, admitted on Sunday that he killed the two girls.

Codes — The changes made to the Criminal and Criminal Procedure Codes by Romania’s Parliament are generally unconstitutional, Romania’s Constitutional Court decided on Monday. Judges believe that the MPs have not complied with their obligation to correlate the changes made to the Codes with the decisions previously made by the Court. The draft codes will be forwarded to Parliament to be harmonized with the Court’s decisions. The changes to the Codes were challenged by the Romanian president and the opposition Save Romania Union party and the Liberal Party. They claim that through these bills, promoted by the governing coalition made up of the Social Democratic Party and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats, more than 300 modifications are brought to the criminal legislation, which they label as harmful.

Football – Romania’s football champions CFR Cluj will take on Maccabi Tel Aviv of Israel away from home, on Tuesday, in the decisive leg of the second preliminary round of the Champions League. In the home match, CFR defeated the Israeli eleven 1-0. If they win, CFR Cluj will play in the 3rd preliminary round with the winner of the match pitting the famous Celtic Glasgow from Scotland against Estonia’s champions Nomme Kalju. Romania’s vice champions FCSB defeated in the first leg, in Erevan, 3-0, the Armenian eleven Alaşkert FC and on Thursday they will play on home turf against the Armenian team in the second leg of Europa League’s round 2. Also on home turf, CSU Craiova will take on Honved Budapest after they previously drew the first match 0 all. The winner of Romania’s Cup Viitorul Constanta will take on the Belgian eleven KAA Gent that defeated them, 6-3, last week. If they still manage to qualify, Viitorul will take on, in the third preliminary round, the winner of the match between AEK Larnaca of Cyprus and Levski Sofia of Bulgaria. FCSB will play against either Mlada Boleslav of the Czech Republic or Ordabasî Şimkent (Kazakhstan) and Craiova will take on AEK Athens from Greece. (translation and update by L. Simion)