TEMPORARY PROTECTION ORDER

TEMPORARY PROTECTION ORDER

A temporary protection order is issued by the police agents who, in exercising their professional duties, find that there is an imminent risk that the life, physical integrity or freedom of a person is endangered by an act of domestic violence.

The police agents establish the existence of an imminent risk based on the assessment of the factual situation resulting from the evidence held and the risk assessment form.

If, further to the assessment of the factual situation, it is found that the requirements for the issuance of a temporary protection order are not met, the police agents have the obligation to inform the persons stating that they are victims of domestic violence that they have the possibility to file with the court an application for the issuance of a protection order.

The temporary protection order issued by a police agent shall order, for a period of 5 days, one or several protection measures:

• temporary eviction of the aggressor from the common dwelling, irrespective of whether such is the holder of the ownership right thereon;
• reintegration of the victim and, as the case may be, of the children, in the common dwelling;
• ordering the aggressor to keep a determined minimum distance from the victim, from the members of the victim’s family or from the residence, work place or educational unit of the protected person;
• ordering the aggressor to deliver to the police the weapons held.

A temporary protection order shall also include indication that the breach of any of the ordered measures constitutes an offence and is punished by imprisonment from one month to one year.

If the temporary protection order took the measure of temporary eviction of the aggressor, and their accommodation is not ensured from another source, they shall be informed and guided to the residential centres offering accommodation for homeless people or night shelters, managed by the local public administration authorities, or any other adequate place. If the aggressor requests accommodation in a residential centre such as those mentioned above, they shall be led by the mobile team (mobile team = representatives of the social assistance public service).

The obligations and interdictions ordered against aggressors by the temporary protection orders become mandatory immediately after their issuance, without any summons and without the lapse of any time.

The period of 5 days shall be calculated per hours, namely 120 hours from the moment when the temporary protection order was issued.

The temporary protection order shall be communicated to the aggressor and to the victim.

The temporary protection order shall be submitted by the police unit to which the police agent who issued it belongs, for confirmation, to the prosecutor’s office attached to the competent local court within whose territorial area it was issued, within 24 hours from its issuance date.

The prosecutor or the competent prosecutor’s office decides on the need to maintain the protection measures ordered by the police body within 48 hours from the issuance of the temporary protection order.

If it finds that it is no longer necessary to maintain the ordered protection measures, the prosecutor may order the termination of the protection measures, supporting such with reasons and indicating the time from which they cease. The prosecutor shall communicate this immediately to the police unit which submitted the temporary protection order, which shall take measures of immediately informing the persons which formed the object of such order.

If the prosecutor confirms that it is necessary to maintain the protection measures ordered by the police body by the temporary protection order, it shall apply an administrative resolution on its original counterpart.

The prosecutor shall then submit the temporary protection order (OPP with a term of 5 days), accompanied by the documents underlying the issuance and confirmation thereof, to the competent local court within whose territorial area such was issued, accompanied by an application for the issuance of the protection order (OP with a maximum term of 6 months).

The initial term (of 5 days) for which the OPP (temporary protection order) was issued shall be extended as of right with the time necessary for the fulfilment of the judicial procedure of issuing the OP protection order, informing the aggressor of this fact.

The temporary protection order (OPP) may be appealed with the competent court of law within 48 hours from its communication.