The actions committed based on the same criminal resolution involving a prohibited substance constitute a continued offense.

In the Official Gazette, Part I, No. 951 of September 23, 2024, Decision No. 38/2024 regarding Case No. 908/1/2024 was published. The case pertains to the request made by the Cluj Court of Appeal – Criminal and Juvenile Division, which sought a preliminary ruling for clarifying a legal issue.

By Decision No. 38/2024, the High Court of Cassation and Justice (ÎCCJ) admitted the request made by the Cluj Court of Appeal – Criminal and Juvenile Division, which sought a preliminary ruling for clarifying the following legal issue:

"When a person commits actions at different intervals of time, based on the same criminal resolution, which could constitute the material element of both the offense provided for in Article 16, paragraph (1) of Law No. 194/2011, and the offense provided for in Article 2 of Law No. 143/2000, actions involving the same type of prohibited substance (the same substance), which, before the entry into force of Law No. 77/2023, fell under the scope of Law No. 194/2011, and after the entry into force of the mentioned normative act, under the scope of Law No. 143/2000 (thus being classified as a high-risk drug in the annexed table to Law No. 143/2000), are we dealing with a concurrence of offenses between the actions committed before the entry into force of Law No. 77/2023 and those committed afterward, or is it a continued offense whose classification is determined by the moment when the criminal activity concluded?"

The Court ruled as follows:

When a person commits actions at different intervals of time, based on a single criminal resolution, which correspond, in practice, to both the material element of the offense provided for in Article 16, paragraph (1) of Law No. 194/2011, and the material element of the offense provided for in Article 2 of Law No. 143/2000, and which involve the same type of prohibited substance that, before the entry into force of Law No. 77/2023, fell under the scope of Law No. 194/2011, and after the entry into force of the mentioned normative act, under the scope of Law No. 143/2000, the person's actions constitute a legal unity in the form of a continued offense, to which the criminal law in effect at the time of the last action committed applies.

This ruling is mandatory from the date of its publication (September 23) in the Official Gazette of Romania, Part I, in accordance with Article 477, paragraph (3) of the Criminal Procedure Code.

Source: https://www.juridice.ro/740406/iccj-dcd-admis-actiunile-comise-in-baza-aceleiasi-rezolutii-infractionale-asupra-unei-substante-interzise-constituie-o-infractiune-continuata.html