“Mario's Law”: Petition demanding punishment for crimes committed by minors, after Cena's case / One of the suspects is 13 years old and free
A petition calling for criminal liability from the age of 10 for murder has been signed by more than 20,000 people. “Mario's Law”, as the petition is called, was initiated after a 15-year-old child from Cenei, Timiș County, was killed by two other children. And former judge Cristi Danileț claims that a minor under 14 should be criminally responsible for his actions, if a psychiatrist determines that he has discernment.
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- Three teenagers, two 15-year-olds and one 13-year-old, are the main suspects in Mario's murder. One of the 15-year-olds is accused of killing their friend, together with the 13-year-old. The two then called the second 15-year-old child to help them hide the body, set it on fire and buried it in a garden.
- On Friday, the 15-year-olds were remanded in custody for 30 days, while the 13-year-old was released because he is too young to face criminal charges.
The “Mario Law” was initiated on Thursday by Lavinia Bichler from Timisoara. The petition calls for criminal liability in the case of crimes committed by minors. The initiative seeks to amend the Criminal Code so that the perpetrators of murder crimes are held criminally responsible, regardless of age, when the act is committed with discretion.
The petition had been signed by more than 20,000 people by the time the article was published.
According to the initiator, under current legislation minors under the age of 14 are not punished – not even in cases of murder or qualified murder – even if there is direct intent, premeditation and discernment proven by forensic psychiatric expertise.
Therefore, the 13-year-old suspect is at large and can go to school.
What is “Mario's Law”
The petition proposes amending the Criminal Code by introducing clear provisions for crimes against life:
- Criminal responsibility from the age of 10 for the crimes of murder and qualified murder, when the act is committed with direct intent, premeditation and with discernment established by psychiatric expertise;
- Eliminating automatic impunity based solely on age, in the case of serious crimes;
- The possibility of applying the maximum penalty, including life imprisonment, in situations of qualified murder;
- Removal of the mandatory nature of the mitigating circumstance of minority, in cases of extreme gravity.
Supporters of the petition argue that a victim's life cannot have a different value based on the age of the perpetrator.
“In Romania, a crime committed with intent, premeditation and discernment can go unpunished only because of the age of the aggressor. This must stop. The Mario Law requires a simple and correct thing: whoever kills with discernment should be held criminally accountable, regardless of age,” the initiator of the petition said on her Facebook page.
Cristi Danileț: “The psychiatrist, not the Parliament, establishes that he has discernment”
The topic was also commented on by the former judge Cristi Danileț, who said, in a message on Facebook, that “it is illogical for the Parliament to determine that a 13-year-old child, who is perfectly aware of the crime committed, should not answer anyway, assuming that he has no discernment”.
“If you have not turned 14, it is considered from the start that you do not have the discernment to answer for serious acts such as robbery, rape, murder – that is, you do not have the mental capacity to realize what act you have done and what are its consequences. But, as soon as you turn 14, on that very day, you are criminally responsible and you can go to the detention center for juvenile offenders if you are convicted and the psychiatrist determines that you have discernment”, he writes Daniel.
He argues that the decision should belong to the psychiatrist who analyzes the defendant: “It would be fair for a minor to be criminally responsible for his serious actions if the psychiatrist, not Parliament, determines that he has discernment.”
Danileț also offers some examples from other countries. In the US, the minimum age of criminal responsibility is 7 years, in England and Switzerland 10 years, and in France 13 years.
“He had no remorse.” The uncle of the boy killed in Timiș, new details after he spoke with one of the children suspected of having killed Mario
Two of the three suspects, remanded in custody
The two 15-year-olds who were involved in the killing, burning and burying of Mario were remanded in custody for 30 days, on Friday, according to Agerpres and the local publication Opinia Timișoara. Initially, they were taken to the INML for a psychiatric examination.
One of the teenagers is being investigated for murder and desecration of corpses, and the other for desecration of corpses and favoring the perpetrator. After the child collapsed under the ax and knife blows that were applied to him, the aggressors tried to set fire to his body and, because they failed, they carried him with a wheelbarrow into the garden of the house, stripped him, wrapped his jacket around his head and buried him.
The boys admitted everything they had done and said they were sorry.
The third suspect, aged 13, was taken to a child neuropsychiatry clinic for questioning because he was in a state of agitation. The doctors requested his hospitalization, but the child's mother did not agree. He is at large.
The crime, planned a month ago, prosecutors say
The crime took place in the evening of January 19, 2026, around 9:30 p.m., according to the Prosecutor's Office attached to the Timiş Court. According to prosecutors, the two suspects planned everything from a month ago.
The 13-year-old boy told investigators that he and his two older friends envied the boy because he had expensive things like an electric scooter or an ATV. The aggressors claimed before the investigators that the boy terrorized them, threatened to beat them and even hit them.
