The Bucharest Court of Appeal is expected to rule on Wednesday, February 21, in the case involving the execution of communist dissident Gheorghe Ursu. Judges may decide to retry the case after the High Court of Cassation and Justice (ICCJ) ruled in July 2023 to acquit those who beat and tortured Gheorghe Ursa.

The dissident’s son, Gheorghe Ursu, announced last November that he was requesting a review of the sentence handed down by the ICCJ, after the General Prosecutor’s Office did the same.

• “I want to tell you one more important thing: last week I also filed a motion to review the sentence. There are hundreds of testimonies of other people who were tortured and brutally beaten in the 70s and 80s in the dungeons of the Security and Militia throughout the country.

• Plus the convictions that some people received in the 80s on purely political charges. So we are talking only about the political repressions of those years, albeit disguised under common law pretexts.

• The Attorney General’s Office obtained documents from CNSAS that show the action plans of Security – the 6th Directorate of Criminal Investigations, which included two torturers – in which this Ceausescu doctrine and AI Security are described in lavish detail, which he classified. dissidents, opponents of the Ceausescu regime, as thieves, thieves, “so that we do not have problems with international organizations regarding human rights.”

• This is a quote from Tudor Postelnik, head of Security since 1985. I submitted the following new documents totaling 50 GB on a memory card: audio, video and holographic evidence from CNSAS, which conclusively prove the repression of Security against the Romanian people. , Andriy Ursu said at that time.

How the ICCJ reasoned its decision

The three magistrates who made decisions in this case argued, among other things, that the victim “was not an opponent of the communist regime and was not in hostile relations with the state security agencies, since his views and disagreement with the state, politicians and leadership were not made public, did not reach the general public in another way and did not cause any consequences in external reality (they were not likely to promote hostile ideas and concepts or incite actions against the socialist system)”.

The judges remembered that Ursu went to the West.

And the Prosecutor General’s Office demanded a review of the decision in the case of Gheorghe Ursu

The Prosecutor General’s Office reported that on Wednesday it filed a motion to review the acquittal decision of the accused sent to the court by the Military Prosecutor’s Office in the “Ursu case”.

Prosecutors of the Department of Justice of the General Prosecutor’s Office indicate in the request for verification that it is based on facts or circumstances that were not known at the time of the case.

• “In September and October 2023, the National Council for the Study of Security Archives sent to the Prosecutor’s Office of the Supreme Court of Cassation and Justice a series of documents containing data and information accompanied by technical details that are considered absolutely relevant and necessary. understand the data provided regarding the facts or circumstances that were not known at the time of the case and that prove the repression carried out by the Security and the dissident qualities of the victim Gheorghe Ursu.

• At the same time, in order to impartially and competently document the realities of the communist regime, especially regarding the functioning of its repressive apparatus, as well as other institutions of the regime, the PÎCCJ received scientific support from the Romanian Academy, through the Institute of History “Nicolae Iorga”, as well as the Institute for the Investigation of the Crimes of Communism and Memory Romanian Exile (IICCMER), as a government agency specializing in the investigation of crimes of communism.

• Thus, in October 2023, documentary material collected by IICCMER in cooperation with the “Nicolae Iorga” Institute of History was submitted, which was accompanied by synthetic material related to the history of the disease and human rights violations in Romania in the period 1980-1989. .

• As emphasized in the request for review, the new facts and circumstances revealed by these materials confirm a completely different factual situation than the one established by the court and are limited by the historical truth, namely that repression was a permanent feature of the communist regime. The conflict between between society and the regime was constant, the regime continued to practice restrictive policies, banning any public manifestations that it considered threatening to its stability, and concealed political repression by using criminal investigations instituted by the militia as a cover for political policing.

• Regarding the specific situation of the victim Ursu Gheorghe, the new documents show clear and unmistakable elements of the fact that he was considered a political opponent and his actions were considered part of the category of the most serious forms of opposition to the regime. the dictatorial rule of Nicolae Ceausescu.

• Therefore, referring to the mentioned documents, the prosecutors estimated that there are new data and circumstances that were not taken into account when deciding the case and that could lead to a decision diametrically opposed to the one made, turning to the Court of Appeal of Bucharest with a request to satisfy the request for review, annulment of the contested decision and, through a retrial, conviction of two of the accused and closure of criminal proceedings against the third (who died during the trial) for committing a crime without threatening behavior.”

Read also:

• DOCUMENT How does the Supreme Court justify the acquittal of the executioners of the dissident Gheorghe Ursu: “The victim was not an opponent of the communist regime until his opinions were made public”

• To the son of the dissident Gheorghe Ursu on the review of the decision on the acquittal of his father’s executioners: It is good that the prosecutor’s office dared to go forward

• The executioners of the dissident Gheorghe Ursa were finally acquitted / “Day of National Shame” – reaction to the decision of the Supreme Court