Revolution Case with Iliescu, Voiculescu Sent Back to Prosecutors
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The judges of the High Court of Cassation and Justice (ÎCCJ), who decided on Friday, September 20 to resend the Revolution file to the prosecutor’s office, justify their decision by the fact that the prosecutor did not rectify the indictment, as they had requested on June 14, according to the minutes published on the Justice portal.
“The court orders the return to the Prosecutor’s Office attached to the High Court of Cassation and Justice – Military Prosecutors Section of the case regarding the defendants Iliescu Ion, Voiculescu Voican Gelu, Rus Iosif sent to court by indictment no. 11/P/2014 of July 29, 2022 “, it is written in the decision of the judges. The decision is final.
The judicial expenses will be paid by the state, the ÎCCJ judges also determined.
Friday’s decision comes after the judges decided on June 14 that the indictment from the “Revolution” file, in which the former president Ion Iliescu is accused, contains irregularities and they gave a deadline of five days to the Military Prosecutor’s Office to say whether to maintain sending the file to court or redo the investigation.
On October 25, 2023, at the substantive court – Bucharest Court of Appeal – it was decided to start the substantive trial in the “Revolution” file, in which Ion Iliescu, former Deputy Prime Minister Gelu Voican Voiculescu and Iosif Rus, former head of the Military Aviation, are accused of committing crimes against humanity. The court found then that the indictment drawn up by the military prosecutors is legal.
Before arriving at the Bucharest Court of Appeal, the “Revolution” file wandered for over four years between the Bucharest courts and prosecutor’s offices on procedural grounds. In the first phase, Ion Iliescu was sent to court by the Military Prosecutor’s Office in April 2019, but the file was returned to the Prosecutor’s Office two years later by the ICCJ judges, citing irregularities in the indictment.
The Supreme Court then decided to exclude several pieces of evidence from the criminal prosecution material, including “statements” containing the reports made by Gelu Voican Voiculescu and Ion Iliescu before the Senatorial Commission, reports of the Parliament, a point of view from the SRI or documents of archive from MApN.
In August 2022, the former general prosecutor Gabriela Scutea announced the resending of the Revolution file to the supreme court, after the redrafting of the indictment by the military prosecutors. After six months, a preliminary chamber judge from the supreme court decided that it is not within the jurisdiction of this court to judge this file and sent it to the Bucharest Court of Appeal.
According to the indictment, Ion Iliescu, as head of state and government, president of the CFSN and the Superior Military Council, with the intention of obtaining popular legitimacy, maintaining and consolidating the political power held since December 22, 1989, at 4 p.m., 00, constantly, repeatedly, systematically misled public opinion, through his televised appearances and the issuance of communiqués, and assumed, between December 22 and 30, 1989, the systematic operation of misleading public opinion.
These facts had as consequences the generation and amplification of the generalized psychosis of terrorism, psychosis causing numerous situations of generalized fratricidal fire and, thus, between 22 and 30 December 1989 there were 857 deaths, 2,382 injuries to people, 585 serious deprivations of liberty with violation of the general rules of international law and 409 cases of great suffering.
Also, the same acts of Ion Iliescu generated, for the period of December 22, 4:00 p.m. – December 30, 1989, a state of imminent and serious danger for the existence of a significant part of the civilian population on the entire territory of Romania, the prosecutors claim.
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