Clotilde Armand, one year suspended prison sentence: PSD attacks USR, party statute explained
Sector 1 Court has ordered the suspension of a one-year prison sentence for former mayor Clotilde Armand. PSD accuses double standards, and Armand announces appeal.
The Armand case: conviction without conviction, amid political attack
Cotidianul.ro reports that Sector 1 Court has ordered the suspension of a one-year prison sentence in the case of the former mayor of Sector 1, Clotilde Armand (USR), for alleged conflict of interest — the use of office to favour certain persons. The decision is not final.
The court also banned her from being elected to public authorities or any other public offices, and from holding a position involving the exercise of state authority, for a period of three years.
Armand announced that she will contest the ruling. "I will fight to the end, including because there are many questions regarding the course of this case," she wrote on Facebook, adding that the case was "initiated following a referral from PSD".
PSD's reaction: "The good convicts from USR"
The Social Democratic Party issued a statement on Tuesday accusing USR of applying a double standard. "Now it's official! We have a new species of convicts: 'The good convicts from USR' (...) Only convicts from other parties must leave so as not to taint the integrity of the political class," PSD stated.
The Social Democrats continued: "They, the poor things, are victims of 'captured justice' and politicised institutions! In their case, court decisions are abusive, unfair and unconstitutional. However, the good convicts and condemned from USR #resist and fight for democracy!"
PSD ended its message with a direct allusion to USR's emblematic campaign "No convicts in public office".
What USR's statute says
According to article 70 paragraph 1 of USR's statute, a member's status is automatically suspended in a situation where a member is convicted, at first instance, to a sentence involving deprivation of liberty for an offence committed with intent, regardless of the manner of execution of the sentence.
However, lawyer Toni Neacșu explained that this provision does not apply in Armand's case, because the suspension of the prison sentence does not legally amount to a conviction.
"The Constitutional Court recently ruled (Decision 905/2020) that the provision by which, in the case of military personnel, the suspension of the prison sentence would lead to transfer to reserve status as with any other conviction, is unconstitutional. Likewise, in the case of civil servants, suspension of the sentence does not lead to automatic termination of the service relationship, as it is not a conviction. In Clotilde Armand's case there is no conviction, as the Sector 1 Court's sentence cannot be assimilated to one," Neacșu wrote.
The court decision therefore remains contestable on the merits, and USR's statute is not automatically activated at this procedural stage.
Source: Cotidianul.ro