The Bucharest Court of Appeal on Thursday, October 17, acquitted Marin Parvulescu and Vasile Hodis, two officers of the former communist secret police – Securitate, charged with crimes against humanity.

The court changed the charges against the two to inhuman treatment. The decision is not final, Mediafax reported.

The two were being judged for beating to death anti-communist dissident Gheorghe Ursu. The prosecutors had asked for 25-year jail sentences for the two defendants.

The prosecutors sent the case to court in August 2016.

Dissident engineer Gheorghe Emil Ursu was arrested on September 21, 1985, and died on November 17, the same year at the Jilava penitentiary hospital.

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