Crin Antonescu read at a press conference the statement he gave to the Securitate in 1988, after obtaining the document from the National Council for the Study of the Securitate Archives. The PSD-PNL-UDMR coalition candidate emphasized that the statement includes “only things known” to the officers who investigated Ștefan Costache, the friend who tried to flee the country before 1989. “He seems disoriented, he says that his success in life is no longer so certain,” according to the document read by Crin Antonescu.
“It (the statement) only includes things known to the Securitate, because it is the account of their adventures with Ștefan (…) They were acting on a kind of educational conviction that it was good in the country and to stay. There is no form of commitment, not even in the classic sense that I would provide information”, Crin Antonescu emphasized.
Antonescu also emphasized that he was called by the Securitate as a “person from the circle of close friends” of Ștefan Costache, amid an investigation regarding his desire to leave the country.
“We were investigated in this capacity, I said technically victim, I do not present myself as a victim, I did not make any case for this and some are surprised that I did not tell. I had nothing to tell. It was a formality, I did not suffer anything at the time. When the matter came up, I remembered, I also called the man. It is a clear matter, there is no form of collaboration, of contact at least between me and the Securitate”, Crin Antonescu added.
The statement given by Crin Antonescu to the Securitate, as read by him.
“The undersigned Antonescu George Crin – (n.r. Personal data) – I declare that I know Costache Ștefan, an engineer at the Tulcea municipal enterprise, I have known him for approximately 20 years. We grew up together, we were classmates. After the 8th grade, Costache Ștefan went to Bucharest to attend a high school and the Faculty of Civil Engineering. We are on friendly terms, and in the fall of 1987, after he returned from a trip to Bulgaria as a tourist, he told me: Towards the end of the trip, in Sofia, he tried to travel to Vienna, by air, without a passport. He was detained at the airport, for 2-3 days in Bulgaria, after which he was sent to Romania, also by air. From Bucharest to Tulcea he was accompanied by militia officers, and in Tulcea he was detained again, being investigated by the militia and the Securitate. In connection with the periods in which he was detained, he told me that everything happened under normal conditions, that he was only asked to report his deed, verbally and in writing, and that no pressure was exerted. He told me that he intended to just take a walk to Vienna and then return to the country and that, later, he went back on his statement, stating that he probably would not have returned. He told me that the investigative bodies discovered packages with personal items intended for friends at his home, and I was among them. I do not know the contents of the packages. He had a discussion with a Securitate officer who explained to him the significance of the deed and his attitude. He returned home and resumed his personal activity. Although we are in close relations, I did not know Ștefan Costache’s intentions. I know that he submitted documents for a trip to socialist countries and was approved for Bulgaria (…) I was amazed because in previous discussions he never expressed the vaguest intention to settle in another country. Ștefan Costache is currently in close relations with the undersigned (…) I have the opportunity to exert a positive influence on him, he trusts me (…) but he seems disoriented, because he states that his success in life would no longer be so certain. Crin Antonescu, 13.01.1988”.
The National Council for the Study of the Securitate Archives (CNSAS) has issued a certificate attesting that Crin Antonescu, the presidential candidate of the PSD-PNL-UDMR coalition, was not a collaborator or informant of the Securitate (the former communist political police service).