Another lethal amendment for Romanian criminal law says suspect must first be warned before the prosecutors can begin to collect evidence

HotNews.ro has identified another fatal amendment for the investigators, in a long series of amendments aimed at changing the Criminal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code. PSD and ALDE, the governing coalition parties, propose to amend the article of the Criminal Procedure Code which refers to „Bringing to knowledge of the quality of suspect”.

Thus, according to the amendment, prosecutors would have to first notify a person that they have a suspect quality, otherwise all evidence is null. Only after the person is notified, prosecutors may collect evidence, intercept, make searches or a potential flagrant, etc.

According to experts in criminal law consulted by HotNews.ro, if someone makes a criminal complaint and indicates the author, the prosecutor would have to immediately notify the person against whom the criminal complaint has been made of his quality of suspect. The issue here is paragraph 2, which makes it impossible to collect evidence until the investigated person is a suspect, otherwise all evidence is null. Clearer, prosecutors will be able to do interceptions, searches, or an eventual flagrant only after the persons who are being investigated are notified that they have acquired the suspect quality.