Former Romanian minister of communication and IT, Gabriel Sandu, avoided being trialled for the alleged money laundering of EUR 2.2 mln with contracts for the use of Microsoft licenses – a series of trials broadly known as the Microsoft case that failed amid repeated delays and sluggish prosecution.

The prescription term expired in the case of Gabriel Sandu, the High Court of Justice concluded, after two rulings issued by the Constitutional Court, G4media.ro reported. The bad news is that the Constitutional Court’s ruling that saved Sandu will put an end to other corruption cases where the prescription term will be re-calculated. 

On May 26, the Romanian Constitutional Court (CCR) declared unconstitutional an article in the Criminal Code that allowed prosecutors to interrupt the prescription by administering new evidence.

The CCR found that in the period 2018 - May 2022, there was no interruption of the criminal case. Later, on October 25, a panel of the High Court decided that the ruling of the Constitutional Court could be applied retroactively on the principle of the more favourable criminal law.

andrei@romania-insider.com

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