Nearly 28 years after the violence in the University Square, the first appearance in court in the miners’ riot file on June 13-15, 1990 has taken place on Tuesday. Among the defendants who would come before the judges of the Supreme Court are former President Ion Iliescu, former Prime Minister Petre Roman and the former leader of the Jiu Valley miners, Miron Cozma. They are accused, alongside former SRI Chief Virgil Măgureanu, Adrian Sîrbu and Gelu Voican Voiculescu, of crimes against humanity. The file is huge, it has over 400 volumes describing in detail all the acts of violence that led to the deaths of four people and the injuries of nearly 1,400, digi24.ro informs.
The lawsuit has started with scandal Tuesday morning at the Bucharest Military Court of Appeal, where hundreds of people turned out to attend the court’s works.
The hall in which the trial unfolds is inconvenient for the civil parties quoted in the file so that people were forced to wait outside, in the cold, waiting for their turn to be called in from a list.
A man fainted and was dragged a few feet outside and put on a chair, and he returned after a few minutes. The man was taken over by a SMURD ambulance to the hospital. His acquaintances say he is epileptic, is 46 years old and underwent surgery several times.
Unsatisfied with the way in which the trial is conducted is also the President of the Association December 21, 1989, Teodor Maries.
“We’ve been welcomed with military police, militia, gendarmes, our identity cards were taken, although it is a public trial. We do not know how many will enter the court because there isn’t enough room. Perhaps the president of the court will not forget when she said that this trial would end in a year and a half, with hearings every two days,” Mărieş said.
Virgil Magureanu, the first director of the Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI), was booed on arrival at the Military Court of Appeals.
A gendarmerie group was sent at the site, trying to make order, and some fences have been placed in front of the court.
At this first term of a preliminary chamber, the judge was expected to discuss measures and exceptions in the trial, and the debates are not public, the source informs.