The Bucharest Court of Appeal ordered on Wednesday the start of the trial of the Revolution case, in which former president Ion Iliescu and two other former officials were accused of committing crimes against humanity, on Wednesday.
After several postponements, the court dismissed all exceptions and requests raised by Iliescu’s lawyers, and the legality of the indictment drawn up by the prosecutors was established.
The decision is not final and can be challenged within three days of communication.
In the first phase, Iliescu was sent to trial by the Military Prosecutor’s Office in June 2017. The former president and 13 other officials had been ordered to stand trial on charges of crimes against humanity in connection with the crackdown on a Bucharest protest in 1990.
Four people were killed after Iliescu called in tens of thousands of club-wielding miners to help police put down the demonstration, just months after the execution of communist dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu in December 1989.
Besides the four dead, a further 1,380 were injured and 1,250 were arrested, according to the charge sheet.
In November 2021, the file was returned to the Prosecutor’s Office by the Supreme Court (ICCJ) judges, citing irregularities in the indictment.
The Supreme Court then decided to exclude from the criminal prosecution material several pieces of evidence.
In August 2022, former general prosecutor Gabriela Scutea announced that the revolution case was being sent back to the Supreme Court after the military prosecutors re-evaluated the indictment.
After six months, the High Court of Cassation and Justice decided that it was not within their jurisdiction to judge the case, because Ion Iliescu was not head of state on December 22, 1989, but just a member of the FSN Council, and transferred the case to the Bucharest Court of Appeal.
(Cătălina Mihai | Euractiv.ro)
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