Status of private workplace medicine doctor as public official for purposes of bribery offense

The High Court of Cassation and Justice, sitting as the Plenary Panel for the Settlement of Legal Questions in Criminal Matters, dismissed as inadmissible a request for a preliminary ruling submitted by the Bacău Court of Appeal. The dispute concerned the legal qualification of a workplace medicine doctor operating from a private individual practice, specifically whether such an individual could be considered a public official for the purposes of the crime of bribery. The Court determined that the request did not meet the admissibility requirements for such referral, leaving the lower court's proceedings unaffected by a definitive legal interpretation from the supreme instance. The key legal issue involved the interpretation of the definition of a public official under Article 147(2) of the 1969 Penal Code and Article 175(2) of the New Penal Code, with the admissibility of the preliminary reference itself being the decisive procedural basis for the outcome.