Supreme Court: Ex-president Ion Iliescu can be criminally investigated on the death of four people during the miners’ riot

The High Court of Cassation and Justice admitted, on Thursday, a request of the prosecutors from the General Prosecutor’s Office regarding the reopening of the criminal investigation against the former president Ion Iliescu, in connection with the death of four people during the miners’ riot of June 13-15, 1990.

This is part of the miners’ riot case, in which Ion Iliescu was indicted, in June 2007, by the former prosecutor Dan Voinea for committing the crime of participation in a particularly serious murder, together with Mihai Chiţac, former Minister of Interior, and his former deputy, General Gheorghe Andriţa.

The charges were related to the deaths of four people during the events of the night of June 13-14, 1990. Subsequently, in December 2007, the then Attorney General, Laura Codruţa Kovesi, overturned the solution to start the criminal investigation against the former president, and in October 2008, the prosecutors of the Criminal Investigation and Forensic Section of the General Prosecutor’s Office ordered the non-initiation of criminal proceedings against Ion Iliescu.

The main part of the miners’ riot case was sent to court by military prosecutors in June 2017, Ion Iliescu being charged with committing the crime of crimes against humanity,along with Petre Roman (former PM), Miron Cozma (former leader of the miners), Gelu Voican Voiculescu (ex-deputy PM) and Virgil Magureanu (former head of the intelligence service).

In December 2020, the magistrates of the High Court of Cassation and Justice ruled for this case to return to the Military Prosecutor’s Office, asking prosecutors to resume the criminal investigation from scratch, after all the evidence gathered by the prosecutors had been annulled.