Former Prime Minister Petre Roman, ex-Deputy Prime Minister Gelu Voican Voiculescu and former intelligence director Virgil Magureanu were subpoenaed for Thursday morning to the headquarters of the General Prosecutor’s Office, to be officially informed that they were once again indicted in the June 1990 Miner’s Rampage case, judicial sources told AGERPRES.
Also due to report to the General Prosecutor’s Office are General (res.) Mugurel Cristian Florescu, Admiral (res.) Emil „Cico” Dumitrescu, Cazimir Ionescu, Adrian Srbu and Miron Cozma.
According to the cited sources, 94-year-old former President Ion Iliescu will be questioned by prosecutors at home on Friday, because he is too frail to come to the General Prosecutor’s Office downtown.
On April 16, President Klaus Iohannis gave his approval for the indictment of Petre Roman and Gelu Voican Voiculescu.
The prosecutors have to redo the investigation in this case, after the evidence collected by the investigators was dismissed in court.
Initially, in June 2017, Iliescu was sent to court for crimes against humanity, along with Petre Roman and then director of the Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI) Virgil Magureanu, but in December 2020 the Supreme Court decided to return the file to the Military Prosecutor’s Office to rebuild the investigation from scratch.
The judges then decided to dismiss all evidence gathered by prosecutors, finding the illegality of the indictment by which Ion Iliescu was sent to court along with Petre Roman, Gelu-Voican Voiculescu, Virgil Magureanu, Mugurel Cristian Florescu, Emil „Cico” Dumitrescu, Cazimir Ionescu, Adrian Sarbu and Miron Cozma.
Military prosecutors claimed that on June 11 and 12, 1990, state authorities decided to unleash a violent attack against the sit-in demonstrators in Bucharest’s University Square, who were mainly campaigning for the adoption of point 8 of the Timisoara Proclamation, peacefully expressing their political opinions, in contradiction with those of the majority forming the political power at that time.
The attack allegedly involved forces of the Ministry of the Interior, Ministry of National Defence, SRI, as well as over 10,000 miners and other workers from several areas of the country.
According to the Military Prosecutor’s Office, the attack was carried out in the morning of June 13, 1990, with the following consequences: death by shooting of four people, injury to the physical or mental integrity of a total of 1,388 people, deprivation of the fundamental right to liberty for political reasons, of a total of 1,250 people.
As part of the riot, more than 200 people were rounded up and transported to a military unit of the Ministry of the Interior in Magurele, where they were detained until the afternoon of the same day, when they were allowed to leave, after a brief investigation.
Former President Ion Iliescu was accused by the military prosecutors of of being the one who gave the order for the forced evacuation of demonstrators from University Square, including by using workers from large enterprises in Bucharest.
AGERPRES
