Bucharest Court of Appeal. Legal termination of precautionary measures.

The judicial review court held that the sanction applicable in the event of failure to comply with the maximum time limits of 6 months and 1 year for reviewing the preventive measure must be regarded from a substantive perspective and consists of the automatic (ope legis) termination of the measures not reviewed within the mandatory legal time frame.

Consequently, the challenge filed by the defendant was upheld, and the seizure measures were lifted. (Decision no. 180 of April 14, 2024, delivered by the Bucharest Court of Appeal, Criminal Division I, www.rejust.ro)

Below are several relevant excerpts from the court’s decision:

"Thus, in matters concerning preventive (seizure) measures, as these involve the protection of pre-existing extraprocedural rights, the Court considers that the maximum time limits of 6 months and 1 year for reviewing such measures are of a substantive nature.

[...]

The fact that the legislature did not provide, in the newly introduced legal provision, a specific sanction for failure to observe these time limits does not render them procedural deadlines, since the nature of the review period for the preventive measure does not depend on the express regulation of a sanction but rather, as previously noted, on the nature of the interests being protected.

[...]

Accordingly, the Court finds that the time limit in question is a peremptory (mandatory) one, as a procedural action (the review of the legality and merits of the seizure measure) must be carried out within this period."

Source: https://www.juridice.ro/779438/curtea-de-apel-bucuresti-incetarea-de-drept-a-masurilor-asiguratorii.html