The pretrial detention period and its extension cannot exceed 12 months in a case, the Constitutional Court (CC) ruled on February 23, pronouncing on the issue raised by the judge of the Botanica Court Viorica Puica. The Court also decided that a mandate for pretrial detention cannot be issued for a period longer than 30 days and its period of validity can be extended for at most one month, IPN reports.

In the CC’s meeting, the judge related a recent case when she extended the pretrial detention period for 90 to over 12 months. “This problem appeared in the judicial practice since the Penal Procedure Code was adopted. The cases when the period of 12 months is exceeded are rare, but we should know what to do in such cases,” said Viorica Puica.

The Court also ruled that the persons who had been in pretrial detention for over 12 months in the case of a jail sentence will have the period of the pretrial detention deducted from the jail term in accordance with the law. In the case of acquittal or probation, the persons will be able to seek damages in accordance with the European Convention on Human Rights.

The CC’s decision says the pretrial detention includes the period during which the person was arrested and was remanded in custody, was under house arrest or in a health facility for examinations based on a court decision. The pretrial detention starts to be calculated when the arrest is made or when the mandate for pretrial detention is applied.