Ex-President Iliescu leaves Attorney General's Office after being informed he is subject of criminal investigation

Ex-President Ion Iliescu on Tuesday left the Attorney General's Office after about an hour and 30 minutes without making statements to the press. He had been summoned to be informed that he is a subject in criminal investigation of the December 1989 Revolution, standing accused of crimes against humanity.

On April 13, President Klaus Iohannis favourably approved a prosecutors' request for the criminal prosecution of Iliescu, Petre Roman and Gelu Voican Voiculescu.

On December 18, 2017, the Military Prosecutor's Office announced that following the filing of evidence in the Revolution case, the investigators' conclusion was that in December 1989 there was no power vacuum.

Military prosecutor Marian Lazar then declared that there was a military diversion that started on the evening of December 22, 1989, which he said was the main cause of numerous deaths, bodily injuries and destruction.

Additionally, the prosecutors identified, including by testimony, the source of the panic sound (released on December 21, 1989, during late communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu's last public speech), which contributed, among other things, to the dispersal of the public rally before the Royal Palace and the triggering of street protests in Bucharest.

At the same time, the prosecutors argued that diversion tactics were used against commanders of military unit UM 01417 Targoviste, where the Ceausescus had been secretly driven, and orders had been given from the top of the military command for the physical elimination of the presidential couple.

"It is clear that the diversion existed; it manifested in a complex manner on several planes, being the main cause of numerous deaths, bodily injuries and destructions. The evidence filed highlighted the mechanisms of constant misinformation, with particularly serious consequences, launched through the public television and radio broadcasters as well as military means of communication, thus instilling the well-known terrorist psychosis nationwide. At the same time the way in which a series of diversionary military orders were transmitted, with particularly serious consequences, was schemed up. Regarding the same diversion, data were obtained proving that in 1987 the armed forces of Romania imported two types of machinegun sound generators, as well as generators or infantry weaponry sounds and live fire, and generators of fake sounds imitating the descending of parachutists. At the same time, the filed evidence has led to a better understanding of the radio and electronic diversions back then. Similarly, the succession of the events at UM 01417 Targoviste, the location where the Ceausescus had been kept since December 22, 1989, was clarified. The evidence revealed a constant diversion to which the commanders of this unit were subjected as well as the existence of orders from the top of the military command for the physical elimination of the Ceausescus," prosecutor Marian Lazar said back then.

In addition, until the Ceausescus' execution on December 25, 1989, three attempts had been made to physically liquidate them.

The investigators stated that the circumstances surrounding the preparation of the emergency trial of the former president and his wife, the actual trial, the real motivations behind this action and the execution of the Ceausescus were clarified. AGERPRES (RO - author: Eusebi Manolache, editor: Mihai Simionescu; EN - author: Corneliu-Aurelian Colceriu, editor: Adina Panaitescu)