Paragraph 2 of Article 52 of the law on advocacy was removed. It said that “the lawyer cannot be detained, brought by force, arrested and searched without the preliminary consent of the Council of the Lawyers Union, except for cases when the person is caught red-handed”. The changes to the law were given a final reading and adopted amid the lawyers’ protest mounted in front of the Parliament Building, IPN reports.

The head of the legal commission Olesea Stamate, who proposed the amendment, said in Parliament that the changes to the law on advocacy, primarily the amendment that excludes some of the guarantees for lawyers, had ben intensely debated the past week. “I didn’t see any of the European countries introducing the necessity of obtaining the consent of the guild, of the body that manages the lawyers guild for particular procedural actions. The guarantees present in the European countries refer to the securing of the professional secret and of communication between the lawyer and client,” stated Olesea Stamate.

Lawyers protested in front of the Parliament Building during the plenary sitting, demanding to withdraw the amendment proposed by PAS MP Olesea Stamate to the law on advocacy. They accused the legal commission of abuse and of misleading the MPs and the lawyers guild. The lawyers noted that during the state capture, they were persecuted, wiretapped and arrested and they therefore insist on keeping the guarantees that are annulled by that amendment.