Former Romanian President questioned in miners’ riot case

Former Romanian President Ion Iliescu, 86, went to the General Prosecutor’s office earlier this week, where he was questioned as a suspect in a case related to the miners’ uprising in the summer of 1990. Ion Iliescu is being investigated for crimes against humanity. According to judicial sources cited by local Mediafax, this is Iliescu’s first hearing in this case. Former Secret Intelligence Service chief Virgil Magureanu was also subpoenaed on Thursday, July 7, as he is also investigated for crimes against humanity in the same case. The Romanian Supreme Court decided to reopen the case last spring. The decision came after, in September 2014, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) demanded that Romania should continue investigations in this file. ECHR said that Romania had breached three articles of the European Convention on Human Rights by not solving this case. Some 1,000 people were injured in the violent events on June 13-15, 1990, and six lost their lives. Ion Iliescu, one of the men who coordinated the 1989 Romanian Revolution that led to communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu’s removal, was President of Romania from May 1990 until November 1996, and then again from December 2000 until December 2004. Former Romanian President Ion Iliescu will be prosecuted for crimes against humanity Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com