Revolution trial kicks off after 30 years, 5,000 subpoenaed

The first court hearing in a preliminary chamber in the Revolution file takes place at the High Court of Cassation and Justice on Friday. Former Romanian President Ion Iliescu and former deputy PM in the early 90s, Gelu Voican Voiculescu are charged with crimes against humanity in this high-sounding file.

Subpoena for 5,000 people were sent for this trial, with the High Court already announcing it will have a special schedule.

However, the trial was postponed for February 21, 2020, after the court determined the lapse in procedure. It took five hours to the judges to call 3,516 people up. The Supreme Court has reiterated the urge to have a proper space to carry out its activity.

The Supreme Court has overruled on Wednesday the Prosecutor General’s request to re-open criminal prosecution against Petre Roman and Teodor Brates.

Former president Iliescu, a nonagenarian now, will not attend the hearings, as his lawyer announced.

Over 700 people, victims or surviving dependants of the people who died at the Revolution came to the High Court today. Most of them voiced hope for this trial to come to an end, but skepticism prevailed as a general rule that those to blame for the Revolution shooting will be eventually sentenced.

Due tot he overcrowding in the court, some fainted and needed the ambulance intervention.

In April this year, the military prosecutors within the General Prosecutor’s Office sent the Revolution file to court.

The file encompassed 3,330 volumes, with 2,030 being handled after June 13, 2016.

Ion Iliescu, Gelu Voican Voiculescu, Iosif Rus and Emil Dumitrescu are charged with crimes against humanity in this file.

Former President Ion Iliescu was indicted in the Revolution file in December 2018, under the charge of crimes against humanity. Prosecutors have taken the same decision in the case of Gelu Voican Voiculescu.

The Prosecutor’s Office upon the High Court of Cassation and Justice has announced in a press release in December that the prosecutors with the Military prosecutor’s offices have ordered the criminal action against defendants Ion Iliescu (member and president of C.F.S.N.), Gelu Voican Voiculescu (member C.F.S.N. and former deputy PM), Iosif Rus (former commander of the Military Air Force) and Emil (Cico) Dumitrescu (former member of CFSN), for crimes against humanity.

Iliescu, “at the date of the deeds, member and chairman of the National Salvation Front Council”, was initially charged with deeds committed during December 27-31, 1989.

The National Salvation Front (CFSN) was set up on December 22, 1989, as de facto body that exerted the central executive and legislative rule until the decree of December 27, 1989, when the president of the council also gained the position as head of state, in this case, Ion Iliescu.