Regime of criminal liability of minors in case of multiple offences. Application of educational measures and penalties in the case of concurrent commission of two offences, one of which is committed during minority and one after majority, tried separately
DREPT PENAL ŞI DREPT PROCESUAL PENAL
Abstract
From the provisions of Art. 129 para. (2) letter a) of the Criminal Code, it follows, in essence, that if two offences are committed, one of which is committed during the minority and one after the age of majority, for the offence committed during the minority an educational measure is taken, and for the offence committed after the age of majority a penalty is established, and if the educational measure is a non-custodial one, only the penalty is executed.
Although these legal provisions appear to be primarily applicable to the situation in which the offences within the plurality of offences are prosecuted concomitantly, they are also applicable, for the same reasoning and even in the absence of any legal distinction on the part of the legislator, to the situation in which these offences are prosecuted separately, there being no basis for establishing a differentiated legal solution.
Otherwise, the defendant tried in separate cases would be subject to unequal treatment, depending on the activity of the judicial bodies which have agreed to subject a similar legal situation to a separate or unitary resolution, the resolution of which does not depend on the will of the perpetrator and is independent of any fault on his part.
This type of treatment has no objective justification and is likely to undermine the principle enshrined in Article 16(1) of the Romanian Constitution, which enshrines the equality of citizens before the law and public authorities, without privileges and without discrimination.
This would lead to a situation where one category of defendants would serve only one penalty, if the offences in the plurality of offences were tried together, while another category of defendants would serve the non-custodial educational measure and the penalty imposed for the offence committed after the age of majority, simply because the two offences were tried separately.
