Securitate

Romanian historians have signed an open letter protesting against the decision of the Romanian National Archives, ANR, to limit access to documents in the National Archival Fund.

During the remainder of the Games, where she won three gold medals, she would receive the highest possible score six more times, becoming one of the most iconic sporting legends of all time - as well as a silver bullet for the Romanian regime in terms of international propaganda.

On 5 November 2020, an amended version of the law from 1990, granting financial compensation to both victims of the communist regime and their descendants, came into force after being published in Romania's official gazette. 

Even the premise that the revolution was contemporary Romania's proudest hour, once an article of faith, is now fiercely disputed. Trials against the perpetrators of the violence that followed Ceauşescu's fall on 22 December - which accounted for the lion's share of victims - have been shut down again and again, despite tireless efforts by victims' associations to bring them to justice.

The Bucharest Court of Appeal (CAB) registered the file sent by the National Council for the Study of Securitate [the communist-era political police] Archives (CNSAS) requesting the establishment of the "quality of Securitate collaborator" of the National Bank of Romania (BNR) Governor, Mugur Isarescu.

For those who did not experience it, however, it is hard to imagine the levels of fear and oppression generated by an army of secret police agents that peaked at 500,000 informants out of a population of 22 million.

Thousands of people toured the former building of the Central Committee (CC) of the Romanian Communist Party (PCR) on Sunday, the current headquarters of the Interior Ministry (MAI), with people having access to spaces that were never open to the public - such as the arrest of the former Securitate, located in the basement of the CC, or the balcony from the first floor, where Nicolae Ceausescu

It was mid-December 1989 when hundreds of thousands of people in Timisoara, Bucharest and other Romanian towns and cities defied Nicolae Ceausescu's reign of fear and took to the streets to free themselves from over four decades of Communist dictatorship. 

The judgment is not final and will be challenged by the Ursu family's legal representatives, the victim's son, Andrei Ursu, told BIRN in a telephone interview from the US.

"This is outrageous," said Ursu, who attributed the acquittal to "corruption in the justice system."

"We had overwhelming evidence [for a conviction]," he added.

Former Romanian president Traian Basescu worked as an informer for the country's notorious communist-era secret police, the Securitate, the Bucharest Court of Appeal ruled on Thursday.

The court confirmed the conclusion of an investigation conducted earlier by the National Council for the Study of Securitate Archives, CNSAS, which Basescu has disputed. He said he would appeal.