UPDATE/Public Prosecutor's Office decides initiation of prosecution against former president Iliescu in Revolution case
Military prosecutors with the Public Prosecutor's Office have decided the initiation of the prosecution against former president Ion Iliescu, in the Revolution case, the Prosecutors' Office attached to the High Court of Cassation and Justice informs on Friday.
Military Prosecutors with the Public Prosecutor's Office have also decided the initiation of the prosecution against Gelu Voican Voiculescu, former Deputy Prime Minister, against retired lieutenant general Iosif Rus, at the time of the 1989 Revolution a commander of the Military Aviation and retired admiral Emil (Cico) Dumitrescu, then a first degree captain, member of the National Salvation Front Council (CFSN), in the "Revolution" case "in terms of committing crimes against humanity", informs the PICCJ.
According to a press release issued by PICCJ sent to AGERPRES, by ordinance of 18 December, the prosecutors with the Military Prosecutor's Office Section attached to the High Court of Cassation and Justice, in the criminal file entitled "The Romanian Revolution of December 1989", ruled the initiation of the criminal prosecution against Ion Iliescu (CFSN member and president), Gelu Voican Voiculescu (CFSN member and former Deputy Prime Minister of the Romanian Government), Iosif Rus (former Military Aviation Commander) and Emil (Cico) Dumitrescu (former CFSN member), in terms of committing crimes against humanity provided for in art. 439 lit. a, g, i and k the Criminal Code.
"The investigations aimed to establish the factual situation regarding the direct exercise of the prerogatives of the state power and of the political and military decision-making by the political-military decision-making group of the National Salvation Front Council (CFSN) consisting of Ion Iliescu, Silviu Brucan, Lieutenant General Victor Atanasie Stanculescu, Major General (r) Nicolae Militaru (later reactivated, advanced in military rank and Minister of Defense) and Gelu Voican Voiculescu," the press release specifies.
Military prosecutors show that the administered evidence revealed that the entire Romanian military force, the Ministry of National Defense, the Ministry of Interior - the Department of State Security, and the Patriotic Guards, starting on December 22, 1989, at 16.00 hrs, put themselves at the disposal of the National Salvation Front Council and its leadership. At the same time, the political-military decision-making group of CFSN made important political and military decisions, aiming the accession to political power of a pre-established group and the political legitimisation in front of the Romanian people.
"In order to achieve these goals, starting with the evening of 22.12.1989, an ample and complex misleading activity (diversions and disinformation), coordinated by some members of the Superior Military Council (structure under the CFSN), was supposedly launched, accepted and assumed by CFSN decision-makers. Lieutenant General Atanasie Victor Stanculescu, Army General Nicolae Militaru and heads of Military Directorates were part of the Military Council. In their turn, the four defendants would have participated directly in exercising diversion and disinformation," the investigators say.
"Investigations are concerned with whether the establishment of a generalized terrorism psychosis would have created numerous fratricidal fires, chaotic shootings, contradictory military orders, etc. In this context, approximately 12,600,000 cartridges were shot between 22 and 30 December 1989," prosecutors show.
At the same time, according to the PICCJ, the terrorist psychosis would have been deliberately induced by diversion and disinformation and caused, after December 22, 1989, as many as 862 deaths, 2,150 injuries, the serious deprivation of freedom of hundreds of people, mental injuries.
"These tragic consequences were far worse than those of the repression exerted between 17 and 22 December 1989 (12.00 hrs)," prosecutors add.
These diversions and disinformation would have created the conditions for the sentencing and execution of the Ceausescu presidential couple through a simulated criminal trial, PICCJ says.
"The evidence produced reveals that defendants Ion Iliescu and Gelu Voican Voiculescu would have misinformed directly by appearing on TV and issuing press releases (thus contributing to the establishment of a generalized terrorism psychosis), would have participated in disinformation and diversion exercised for the execution of the Ceausescu couple and would have politically accepted and assumed diversionary acts committed by some officers with leadership positions in the MApN [National Defence Ministry, ed.n.], without intervening to stop them," the press release further specifies.
At the same time, Iosif Rus, as commander of the Military Aviation would have intervened on the night of 22/23 December 1989 without the full right and knowingly, on the defense plan of Otopeni International Airport and would have contributed to the death of 48 people (40 servicemen and 8 civilians), as well as the serious injury of 15 other people. On December 23, 1989 he issued the diversionary order to change the tricolor badges of the helicopters belonging to Boteni Regiment 61, which would have led to the fratricide open fire, and implicitly to the injury of people, prosecutors affirms. "He also issued other military orders, conduct that, beside the concrete results stated, would have contributed to the worsening of the terrorist psychosis," the PICCJ mentions.
Emil (Cico) Dumitrescu, by his TV appearances on December 22, 1989, and through the leadership and coordination work of the Military Command established on the 11th floor of the Romanian Television, as of December 22, 1989 would have contributed directly to the manifestation of the diversionary phenomenon prevailing between December 22 and 30, 1989, the investigators show.
"The immediate result of this conduct was complex, involved the infliction of multiple results on a large number of people and would have generated a state of danger to the existence of significant parts of the civilian population across the entire territory of Romania," PICCJ concludes.AGERPRES(RO - author: Mihai Stoica, editor: Georgiana Tanasescu; EN - author: Simona Iacob, editor: Maria Voican)
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