Two more communist torturers exposed

Two more communist torturers have been revealed on Thursday, with the Institute for Investigation of the Communism Crimes (IICCMER) filing criminal complaints against those two at the Prosecutor’s Office.

One of the disclosed torturers is Marian Petrescu, former commander of several work camps. He is charged with enforcing a detention regime that prompted the death of 104 political prisoners.

Gheorghe Bostina is the second torturer, second in command, allegedly responsible for the death of 100 prisoners.

The IICCMER leadership held a press conference on Thursday to present the outcome of the latest special investigation actions and the situation of the criminal complaints filed by the institute.

The most famous case of Romanian former torturers during the communist regime was the one of Alexandru Visinescu, ex-commander of the communist penitentiary in Râmnicu Sărat, who has been sentenced to 20 years in prison early this year.

He is charged with crimes against humanity related to abuses against political prisoners. Prosecutors said that hundreds political inmates had died in prison while Vișinescu was commander.

Visinescu is thus the first Romanian communist torturer prosecuted and convicted after a 16-month trial. However, the jail sentence comes a little bit too late considering he is 90 years old.

As former commander of Ramnicu Sarat Penitentiary, Visinescu had fiercely oppressed political prisoners during 1956-1963. His trial has started on September 24th, 2014. Visinescu has constantly denied the charges, saying he had just done his job and the prisoners were never tortured.

Yet, the Supreme Court’s prosecutors argued that his deeds have been testified by clear evidence, archive documents, testimonies and other documents.

Investigators consider that such a high sentence is necessary in his case, as he would have had the possibility to avoid the extermination regime in Ramnicu Sarat Penitentiary, which he didn’t. They also established that Visinescu was empowered to decide on the fate of all the prisoners who died in the communist prison.

A second Romanian communist torturer, Ion Ficior, was also sentenced to 20 years in prison on Wednesday for crimes against humanity. Yet, unlike Visinescu, the ruling in his case is not final.

Ficior is accused that he had introduced and coordinated a repressive, abusive and inhuman detention regime against political prisoners during 1958-1963 while he was running the camp of Periprava.

Investigators argue that documents revealed that during Ficior’s term as head of the camp, 103 prisoners have died and all of them were part of the anti-revolutionist community.