PSD: Exoneration - the prompt action anywhere in EU for those sentenced in trials by illegal judicial panels

The ruling Social Democratic Party (PSD) argues that in any EU member state, had trials been found to have been handled by illegal judicial panels or convictions to have been handed down based on illegal secret protocols, those convicted would have been immediately exonerated.

"We appreciate the fact that the European Commission representatives have expressed their concerns about the possibility of an Emergency Ordinance being issued on the supreme court illegal judge panels. However, we remind that human rights abuses cannot be overlooked in any European country. Just as pre-1989 political sentences could not be ignored and have been abolished by democratic Romania, we cannot remain indifferent when, three decades later, we see that human rights have been violated again. In any EU member state, like Germany, the Netherlands, Italy or France, if trials had been found to have been handled by illegal judge panels or convictions handed down based on unlawful secret protocols, the convicted would have immediately been exonerated," the PSD argues in a post on its Facebook page.

According to the cited source, human rights "are not optional but represent the backbone" of the European Union.

"Let us remember Law No. 221/2009 on political convictions during the communist regime, which states that 'all the effects of political sentences (...) shall be lawfully repealed' (Art. 2). Keeping the proportions, the principle is the same: the right of the citizens to a fair and lawful trial has been violated and in 2009 the Romanian state ordered a fair clearing of the criminal record. The difference is that back then no one challenged the law at the Constitutional Court for producing retroactive effects, no one denounced Romania in Brussels for the independence of the judiciary and the rule of law allegedly coming under attack, or for the violation of the principle of the separation of state powers, and no one objected to action being taken through a law against final judgments. Where do we stand today as regards human rights? Do we still take them into account, or put them on hold?", reads PSD's post. AGERPRES (RO - author: Irinela Visan, editor: Andreea Rotaru; EN - author: Simona Klodnischi, editor: Simona Iacob)