Moldovan cabinet proposes amending Constitution article on MPs' immunity

Chisinau, 24 February /MOLDPRES/ - The cabinet of ministers today approved a draft law on the amendment of the Article 70 of the Moldovan Constitution on the immunity of lawmakers. The government will ask for approval of the Constitutional Court on this draft, in order to subsequently submit the latter to parliament for consideration.  

“Under the amendments proposed to the draft law, the cabinet is set to change the legal constitutional framework, which presently provides an excessive protection to the MPs, so that a criminal investigation against the latter could be started without a preceding agreement of the parliament, if the lawmaker is caught in flagrant delict, for which compulsory detention in the act is clearly provided,” an informative note by the Justice Ministry, annexed to the draft, says.      

According to the proposed amendments, the detention or arrest of the MP can take place without the parliament’s consent “in case of an irrevocable decision on conviction or case of a flagrant offence.” Presently, the lawmaker “cannot be detained, arrested, searched, except for cases of flagrant offence, or sued at law without the parliament’s consent, following his/her hearing.”

(Reporter V. Bercu, editor M. Jantovan)