Former Prime Minister Petre Roman showed up at the General Prosecutor's Office on Wednesday morning to be questioned in the June 1990 Mineriad case, where he is accused of committing crimes against humanity.

According to judicial sources, Petre Roman was summoned to the Prosecutor's Office to be informed that he has the status of defendant.

For the same reason, Gelu-Voican Voiculescu was also summoned to the General Prosecutor's Office.

'This accusation is profoundly unfair. What interest could I have had, how could I, a professor, a researcher, someone who went through the barricade at Inter, where 39 young comrades of mine were killed by bullets fired on Ceausescu's orders, guide Romania on the path to the EU, to NATO? I made this commitment categorically and without hesitation. So how could I, what interest would I have had to organise or make a plot, a repression against whom? (...) There is no evidence that I was involved in bringing the miners. What happened there was clearly with the involvement of people from the former Securitate,' Petre Roman said at the entrance to the General Prosecutor's Office.

In this case, criminal charges are also filed against former President Ion Iliescu, former Deputy Prime Minister Gelu-Voican Voiculescu, former Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI) Director Virgil Magureanu, Adrian Sarbu, Miron Cozma, former leader of the miners from Jiu Valley, former generals Vasile Dobrinoiu and Peter Petre.

Prosecutors need to reopen the investigation in this case, after the evidence gathered by investigators was annulled in court.

Initially, in June 2017, former President Ion Iliescu was sent to trial for crimes against humanity, along with former Prime Minister Petre Roman and former SRI Director Virgil Magureanu. However, in December 2020, the High Court of Cassation and Justice decided to return the case to the Military Prosecutor's Office for the investigation to start over.

The judges then decided to annul all the evidence gathered by the prosecutors, determining the illegality of the indictment through which Ion Iliescu was sent to trial, along with Petre Roman, Gelu Voican Voiculescu, Virgil Magureanu, General (ret.) Mugurel Cristian Florescu, Admiral (ret.) Emil 'Cico' Dumitrescu (who has since passed away), Cazimir Ionescu, Adrian Sarbu, and Miron Cozma.

Military prosecutors argued that, on June 11 and 12, 1990, state authorities decided to launch a violent attack against the protesters in University Square in Bucharest, who were primarily advocating for the adoption of Point 8 of the Timisoara Proclamation and peacefully expressing their political views, in contrast with those of the political majority at rule at that time.

This attack allegedly involved, illegally, forces from the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of National Defence, the Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI), as well as over 10,000 miners and other workers from various parts of the country.

According to the Military Prosecutor's Office, the attack was carried out on the morning of June 13, 1990, resulting in the following consequences: the death by gunfire of four people, the rape of two individuals, physical or psychological harm to a total of 1,388 people, and the deprivation of the fundamental right to liberty for a total of 1,250 people, for political reasons.

During this operation, more than 200 people were taken and transported to a Ministry of Interior military unit in the town of Magurele, where they were held until the afternoon of the same day, when they were released after a brief examination.

Ion Iliescu was accused by military prosecutors of ordering the forceful eviction of protesters from University Square, including through the use of workers from large enterprises in Bucharest. AGERPRES (RO - author: Eusebi Manolache, editor: Mihai Simionescu; EN - editor: Adina Panaitescu)