Andra Trandafir - law firm
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Address: 60 Vasile Lucaciu Street, Sector 3, 030167, Bucharest

January 2024

The High Court of Cassation and Justice - Criminal Section has admitted the request for referral to the Constitutional Court with the exception of unconstitutionality of the provisions of Article 168 of the Criminal Code. In essence, the objection was based on the fact that the legal provisions in question do not allow a person who has been subjected to a computer search and who did not have a status in the case, to submit to a posteriori legality control the decision authorising the computer search and the manner in which it was carried out. In support of the exception, the constitutional standard on interference with the right to privacy, highlighted in particular by Decision No 244/2017, and the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights and of the Court of Justice of the European Union, were raised.

In a criminal trial started in 2013, the case is still before the first court, our firm has filed a challenge on behalf of the client we represent - a credit institution that has joined the criminal proceedings as a civil party - regarding the duration of this criminal trial. The appeal was based on the provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights, since the remedy provided for by the Code of Criminal Procedure applies, according to the Law implementing the Code, only to proceedings commenced after 1 February 2014. The High Court of Cassation and Justice declared the appeal thus lodged admissible and, on the merits, it was upheld, the Supreme Court setting a time-limit of one year within which the case must be completed by the first instance.