ROMANIA-TRIAL/COMMUNISM Romania court gives Stalinist-era prison chief 20 years

Record ID: 146110

  • Title: ROMANIA-TRIAL/COMMUNISM Romania court gives Stalinist-era prison chief 20 years
  • Date: 24th July 2015
  • Summary: BUCHAREST, ROMANIA (JULY 24, 2015) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF COURT BUILDING VARIOUS OF COURT INTERIOR (SOUNDBITE) (Romanian) DAUGHTER OF A RAMNICU SARAT PRISONER, ANCA CERNEA, SAYING: "For me, more important than the number of years [of detention] is the fact that, finally, through the court sentence, it has been established that all these were crimes. It doesn't matter how muc
  • Embargoed: 8th August 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Romania
  • Country: Romania
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA4SWAUKAUQ5LPJETDMRYSFHY70
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: EDIT CONTAINS MATERIAL WHICH WAS ORIGINALLY 4:3
    A Romanian court sentenced a Stalinist-era political prison commander to 20 years in jail for murder on Friday (July 24), the first such ruling against a prison head since the collapse of the dictatorship of Nicolae Ceausescu in 1989.
    Dozens of political inmates died in the jail on the outskirts of the small town of Ramnicu Sarat, 150 km (94 miles) east of Bucharest, which between 1956 and 1963 was commanded by Alexandru Visinescu.
    Prosecutors gave the court evidence of Visinescu's direct involvement in 12 deaths at his prison and accused him of subjecting inmates to beatings and starvation, and denying them medical treatment and heating.
    "For me, more important than the number of years [of detention] is the fact that, finally, through the court sentence, it has been established that all these were crimes. It doesn't matter how much time has passed, they haven't remained unpunished," the daughter of one Ramnicu Sarat inmate, Anca Cernea, said.
    According to the Institute for Investigation of Communist Crimes (IICCMER) up to 2 million people are estimated to have been victims of communist repression in Romania between 1945 and 1989, including people killed, imprisoned, deported or relocated.
    "It's very clear that Visinescu's trial has a character of example, it's clear that it's not enough, it's clear that now we can talk about justice for victims of communism. But, let's see also the positive part: let's not regret that it's too late, let's not regret that the man (Visinescu) is too old to really feel what this sentence means for him, and let's see in this slightly stuttering court decision, the begging of the possible justice for the other cases," the President of the Communist Crimes Investigation Institute, Radu Preda, said.
    Visinescu, who turns 90 in September, has repeatedly said he only followed orders and blamed the country's Stalinist leadership of the then dictator Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej.
    Visinescu, who can appeal the ruling, did not attend the trial on Friday. He has been living in central Bucharest, very near IICCMER's offices, local media found, and has been receiving a special military pension.
    Investigations are under way into several other former prison commanders, and IICCMER has said it has a list of 35 prison officials aged 81 to 99 who it says committed crimes.
    Historians say about half a million Romanians including politicians, priests, doctors, officers, land owners and merchants were sentenced and jailed in the 1950s and early 1960s and a fifth of them perished in prisons such as Ramnicu Sarat.
    Many communist-era officials still have public roles and continue to wield political and business influence in Romania.
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