Romania’s interim General Prosecutor decides to reopen the Revolution case

Things are starting to take a new turn in the 1989 Revolution case in Romania, as the interim General Prosecutor Bogdan Licu has requested the reopening of this 26-year old case. The military prosecutors that have been investigating the 1989 Romanian Revolution events decided to close the case on October 14, 2015. They didn’t prosecute anyone and said that many soldiers shot each other during the December 1989 events, due to “fatigue and stress.” However, the interim Prosecutor General believes that the previous investigation missed some things, and decided to reopen the case. “During the investigation, there was no concern for determining the key aspects of the events in December ‘89,” said Bogdan Licu, cited by local Mediafax. The prosecutors will also investigate if any of the events in December 1989 can be classified as genocide. The ordinance through which the General Prosecutor requires the reopening of the case mentions that some of the hearings in this case were “synthetic and formal,” and the prosecutors failed to capitalize valuable information. Moreover, no autopsies have been done in most of the cases that involved deceased people. “The forensic reports are generally very brief,” according to the General Prosecutor's Office. The military prosecutors closed the case without demanding the declassification of documents from the Senate and the Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI), or documents from the archives of other public institutions involved. The 1989 Revolution ended the Communist regime in Romania. After the Revolution, which started in Timisoara on December 15 and reached Bucharest on December 21, late Communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife Elena have been sentenced to death after a very short trial. Read more about Revolution here. European Court of Human Rights again rules against Romania in 1989 Revolution investigation. Romania to pay more damages to 1989 Revolution victims, Human Rights Court rules. Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com