Ex-Romanian President Traian Basescu declared collaborator of former secret police Securitate

The High Court of Cassation and Justice ruled on Wednesday that Traian Basescu had collaborated with the communist secret police, Securitate. The decision is final. The former president refused to comment on the sentence, but said he would go to the ECHR.

In September 2019, the Bucharest Court of Appeal – the court of first instance – admitted the College of the National Council for Studying Securitate Archives (CNSAS) action and ruled that former President Traian Băsescu had collaborated with the Communist Security.

The magistrates of the Bucharest Court of Appeal needed nine months to motivate this decision, and in June 2020, the case reached the Supreme Court – Administrative Litigation Section, after Traian Băsescu filed an appeal. The High Court of Cassation and Justice upheld the decision of the first instance. The ruling is final.

Traian Băsescu retorted that he had taken note of the decision, but will not comment publicly. “I will take legal action at the ECHR,” he said in a Facebook post.

The case filed by CNSAS at the Bucharest Court of Appeal to establish the quality of Traian Băsescu’s Securitate collaborator shows that the former president poured out his colleagues and kept in touch with the Securitate as a support person, until the fall of the regime. Documents from SRI and MApN were submitted in the file. The documents submitted to the court by CNSAS show that Băsescu had a liaison officer appointed by the former Securitate, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel, and that he gave two handwritten information notes.

According to CNSAS, during the collaboration with the Security, Traian Băsescu provided information denouncing activities contrary to the totalitarian communist regime, such as the intention to go abroad and relations with foreign citizens, existing in the informative notes submitted on May 5, 1975.

After the first ruling was pronounced in September 2019, Traian Băsescu told Digi24 that, at the age of 21, he did not know that those from the Counterintelligence, to whom he gave reports, were part of the Securitate.

Due to this final ruling, Basescu will lose some rights

According to the amendment made in 2021 to the law on granting rights to persons who had the quality of head of the Romanian state, a final decision to cooperate with the former Securitate entails the loss of the rights granted for the rest of life.

Therefore, Basescu will lose some rights granted for a lifetime due to his presidential terms:

a) free use of a protocol dwelling, with the destination of residence, which also includes a space with the destination of a work cabinet, staffed with a position of counselor and a position of secretary;

b) a monthly allowance equal to 75% of the allowance granted to the President of Romania in office;

c) security and protection, as well as free use of a car, permanently provided by the Protection and Guard Service, according to the regulations in force.