What is the CCR decision invoked by Sebastian Vlădescu and Ionuț Costea to get out of prison
Sebastian Vladescu at DNA (archive photo), Photo: Agerpres
The CCR decision, indicated by the High Court in the decision by which the cassation appeals filed by Sebastian Vlădescu and Mircea Costea were admitted, concerns an exception of unconstitutionality raised by the former mayor of Toplița, Stelu Platon, in 2022.
Sentenced to a suspended sentence for fraud with European funds, Platon claimed an article in the Code of Criminal Procedure that limited the right of convicted persons to appeal in cassation.
The Code of Criminal Procedure in force at that time stipulated that the defendants can file an appeal in cassation only against the decisions by which the conviction was ordered, the renunciation of the application of the penalty or the postponement of the application of the penalty or the termination of the criminal process. In case of a solution to the termination of the criminal process, only the prosecutors had the right to appeal in cassation.
“If it is found that a cause for the termination of the criminal process was wrongly analyzed, and the result of this erroneous analysis was favorable to the defendant, then the cassation appeal can be promoted, so that he can be sanctioned. However, in the opposite case, in which the cause for the termination of the criminal process was analyzed in a wrong way, and the exercise of the cassation appeal would be favorable to the defendant, the law does not allow it to be promoted. Or, in such a case situation, it cannot be admitted that the defendant has a reasonable opportunity to present his point of view in conditions that do not disadvantage him in relation to the accusation”, indicated the former mayor of Toplița in the objection raised at the CCR.
Three years away from the raising of the exception of unconstitutionality by the former mayor of Toplița, on February 18, 2025, the CCR admitted the exception and declared unconstitutional article 438 paragraph (1) point 8 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, reasoning that it excludes the defendant from the right to file an appeal in cassation and leads to an imbalance between the procedural means available to the parties in the trial. The full decision of the CCR can be read here.
Vlădescu and Costea appealed in cassation
In the case in which Vlădescu and Costea were convicted, the Bucharest Court of Appeal decided on May 5, 2023 to terminate the criminal proceedings against three other defendants in the case, the former parliamentarian Cristian Boureanu, the former secretary of state in the Ministry of Transport Constantin Dascălu and Mihaela Dascălu, a person close to the management of the CNCFR at the time.
Sebastian Vlădescu and Mihai Costea filed an appeal in cassation, considering that the court that convicted them was wrong by terminating the criminal trial, on grounds of prescription, only in the case of the other three defendants in the file.
