The High Court of Cassation and Justice, Romania's Supreme Court, has postponed for February 21, 2020 the debates in the Revolution case, in which former President Ion Iliescu is accused of crimes against humanity.

Over 600 persons turned up, on Friday, at the headquarters of the Supreme Court, in order to become civil parts of the case, judges issuing in this sense over 5,000 citations.

After nearly five hours, during which people entered the courtroom one by one, the magistrate that is responsible for the case took the decision to postpone the case, because procedural defects were noted, namely the fact that there were situations where the citations returned to the court with the mention that the persons cited do not live anymore at the indicated address or the cited are deceased. Two persons requested the postponement of the case in order to study the paperwork on file.

Ion Iliescu did not come to the trial, and his attorney explained that the former President is not obligated to turn up in this stage of the trial.

Former President Ion Iliescu, former deputy PM Gelu Voican Voiculescu and general (retired) Iosif Rus, former head of the Military Aviation, are accused in this case of committing crimes against humanity.

According to the indictment, on the basis of degrading relations between Romania and the USSR, after the Prague 1968 moment, but also following the profound and generalized state of discontent in society, a dissident group coagulated and evolved with the purpose of removing former President Nicolae Ceausescu, but was looking to maintain Romania in the influence sphere of the USSR.

The military prosecutors claim that the group around Ion Iliescu acted cunningly and efficiently in taking over political and military power in December 1989.

Thus, the entire military force of Romania - the Defence Ministry, the Interior Ministry - the Department of State Security, as well as the Patriotic Guards - starting with December 22, 1989, have put themselves at the disposal of the Council of the National Salvation Front (CFSN) and its leadership.

"From the same moment, the political-military decision group of the CFSN, formed of Ion Iliescu, Silviu Brucan, Lieutenant General Victor Atanasie Stanculescu, Major General (retired) Nicolae Militaru (subsequently reactivated, promoted and appointed Defence Minister) and Gelu Voican Voiculescu, took the important decisions with political and military character, desiring the accession to political power of a pre-determined group and achieving political legitimacy in front of the Romanian people," the prosecutors mentioned.

According to the investigation, starting with the evening of December 22, 1989, launched has been an extensive, complex activity to create chaos (diversion and disinformation), coordinated by some components of the Superior Military Council (structure subordinated to the CFSN), accepted and assumed by the decision-making officials of this forum.

The investigations targeted the fact that through the introduction of a "generalized psychosis of terrorism" numerous situations of fratricidal fire, chaotic shooting and contradictory military orders were created.

"The investigations proved that the terrorist psychosis was induced intentionally through diversions and disinformation and caused, after December 22, 1989, an amount of 862 death toll, 2,150 injured, the grave deprivation of liberty for hundreds of persons, psychic injuries. These tragic consequences were more grave than those of the repression exerted in the December 17-22 (12 AM), 1989 interval," the military prosecutors mentioned.

The investigation established that these diversions and disinformation created the conditions of convicting and executing the Ceausescu presidential couple through a simulated criminal trial.

"The indictment administered in the case reveals that defendants Ion Iliescu and Gelu Voican Voiculescu had disinformed directly through the televised appearances and the issuing of press releases (contributing thus to the instilling of a generalized psychosis of terrorism), had participated in the disinformation and diversions exerted to execute the Ceausescu couple and had accepted and politically assumed acts of diversion committed by personnel with leadership positions of the Defence Ministry, without intervening to stop them," the prosecutors claimed.

According to the General Prosecutor's office, Iosif Rus, as commander of the Military Aviation, had intervened on the night between December 22 and 23, 1989, without right and in full knowledge, on the plan to defend the Otopeni International Airport and had thus contributed to the death of 48 people (40 soldiers and 8 civilians), as well as to the grave injury of 15 persons.

"On December 23, 1989, he emitted the diversion order to change the tricolour cockades of the helicopters belonging to the Boteni 61st Regiment, which led to fratricidal fire, and implicitly to the injury of some persons. He issued other military orders and conducts that beside the concrete results mentioned have contributed to aggravating the terrorist psychosis. The immediate consequence of this conduct was complex, it implied the production of multiple results on a large number of people and would have generated a state of danger for the existence of a notable part of the civilian population on the entire territory of Romania," the investigators mentioned.AGERPRES(RO - author: Eusebi Manolache, editor: Andreea Rotaru; EN - author: Razvan-Adrian Pandea, editor: Maria Voican)