Romania's Ex-President Indicted for 1989 Bloodshed

Romanian military prosecutors formally indicted former president Ion Iliescu on Tuesday for alleged crimes against humanity during the violent uprising that ousted the country's Communist leader Nicolae Ceausescu in December 1989.

Prosecutors summoned Iliescu, 88, on Tuesday morning and notified him of the indictment. The ex-head of state spent approximately an hour with the prosecutors and refused to comment on the indictment.

Romania's Attorney General sought permission on April 2 to prosecute Iliescu and former prime minister Petre Roman for crimes against humanity during the 1989 uprising. Former deputy prime minister Gelu Voican Voiculescu is also set to be prosecuted.

President Klaus Iohannis approved the request on April 13.

Prosecutors say that Iliescu, Roman and Voiculescu were in charge in the Council of the National Salvation Front in December 1989, when anti-regime protests turned violent, leading to over 1,000 deaths and leaving 2,500 people injured.

The 1989 revolution case has been one of the longest and most controversial investigations in Romania's history.

In 1990, the Bucharest Military Prosecutor's Office opened a criminal investigation into the case, but the investigation has been halted and reopened four times since then.

In 2015, the European Court of Human Right ruled against Romania and asked the state to pay compensation to eight people - 2,400 euro each - over the length of the criminal proceedings in a case related to their ill-treatment in December 1989.

In November 2016, military prosecutors restarted the investigation into alleged crimes against humanity.

In December 2017, military prosecutor Marian Lazar announced that investigators had uncovered proof that the uprising was...