Constitutional Council Ruling on General Amnesty Law 70/2026

On October 12, 2026, the Constitutional Council issued its decision regarding the appeal submitted by a number of deputies against Law No. 70, enacted on September 4, 2026, concerning the grant of a general amnesty and exceptional sentence reductions. The decision accepted the appeal in form, rejected the total annulment of the law, but partially voided certain provisions while subjecting the text to several binding interpretive reservations to ensure compliance with the Constitution and international conventions.

Key Highlights of the Decision:

• Rejection of Total Annulment: The Constitutional Council preserved the core of the law and its legitimate purpose in addressing prison overcrowding and prolonged trial durations, noting that a general amnesty falls within the legislature’s discretionary power.
• Exclusion of Corruption Crimes: The Council imposed a binding interpretive reservation establishing that the exception of corruption crimes from the amnesty is not limited to Articles 9 and 10 of Section Two, but rather covers all corruption crimes in both the public and private sectors (such as bribery, trading in influence, and abuse of office) alongside all involved parties, while safeguarding state rights and the recovery of embezzled funds.
• Exclusion of Serious Crimes: The Council ruled bindingly that any act constituting a war crime, a crime against humanity, torture, or enforced disappearance is completely outside the scope of the amnesty.
• Partial Annulment of Timeframes:
  • Annulled phrases that compromised uniform time limits, adopting March 1, 2026 as the unified deadline for all crimes covered by the amnesty, including drug-related offenses and cultivation.
  • Struck out the phrase “before 2026/3/1” concerning personal claims in aggravated murder cases to prevent a breach of the principle of equality before the courts.
• Administrative and Disciplinary Decisions: The Council restricted the phrase “decisions, including administrative ones” to measures that are a direct consequence of the penalized prosecution or conviction, excluding independent disciplinary penalties imposed on public employees, thereby preserving administrative independence and third-party rights.
• Death Penalty: The interpretive reservation clarified that the provision addressing the commutation of the death penalty does not revive it following its abolition under Law No. 68/2026, but applies to convicts whose sentences were commuted to hard labor to become 28 years of imprisonment.

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You can find the full text of the Constitutional Council’s decision attached below for complete legal and constitutional details:

Download or View Constitutional Council Decision No. 12/2026 (PDF)

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