Romania Police Accused of Abuse As COVID-19 Fines Soar

The total figure, obtained by BIRN, comprises all the fines announced every day by the authorities, which have imposed more than 200,000 economic sanctions on people for breaking movement restrictions in the last 35 days.

An article published this week by the Romanian economic news portal Profit.ro, said the money collected in fines since the state of emergency came into force equalled the amount of income tax raised by the state in February, and was twice the amount levied that month in customs.

On Easter eve last Sunday alone, the article noted, police issued 3,384 fines, 109 more than those levied by law enforcement authorities in Britain in the last three weeks, even though the UK's population is more than three times larger than Romania's.

"This is an absolute abuse," lawyer Anca Paun told BIRN. Paun offers her services for free to people who have seen their rights abused since freedoms were partially suspended to contain the pandemic. She claims that "police chiefs have clear directives to come up with a fines plan", and to collect a certain amount of money in a given time. 

Police have been widely accused of having ticket "quotas" and of sanctioning people even for such trivial issues as reusing the mandatory form specifying the motive for being in the street, or for filling it in with incorrect grammar.

Police commissioner Georgian Dragan denied the allegations in a media interview on 18 April, although he did admit that the fines "might seem high". 

He added: "My colleagues are permanently advised to respect citizens' rights and freedoms, and to analyze every case separately and apply legal measures only when the situation requires it."

On 21 April, Prime Minister Ludovic Orban also denied the existence of  ticket...

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