The government of Romania [official website] passed an emergency law on Tuesday decriminalizing corruption offenses and official misconduct in which the damages is less than €44,000. The measure is effective immediately and will also be applied [Romania-Insider report] to cases that were already charged or currently being tried in court. Some provisions will lead to pardons or reduced sentences [DW report] for many who were previously convicted and are expected to affect about 2,500 prisoners. Some critics of the law believe it was enacted in part to help members of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) who were accused of similar crimes. However, Justice Minister Florin Iordache, whose office drafted the measure, denied this and claimed that the changes were made because the Constitutional Court ruled that some provisions were unconstitutional. An estimated 4,500 peaceful protesters filled the Victoriei Square [Romania-Insider report] near the government building in Bucharest following the announcement. That number later grew to an estimated 12,000 protestors and demonstrations sprang in other cities throughout the country as well.

The ordinance was first drafted by the Justice Ministry on January 18. The following day, the government published a draft of a plan to lower prison overcrowding [JURIST report] that involves pardons for thousands of prisoners, but the plan was met with protests around the country. Last week Romanian President Klaus Iohannis insisted that a referendum on the government’s plan to pardon thousands of prisoners was needed [JURIST report] despite protests. In 2015 Romania’s Superior Magistrates’ Council rejected 22 proposals that would have made it harder to fight top-level corruption [JURIST report]. Former Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta faced legal trouble of his own for alleged corruption. He was charged with fraud, tax evasion and money laundering in July 2015 and indicted [JURIST reports] on the charges in September of that year.