Romania to pay more damages to 1989 Revolution victims, Human Rights Court rules

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled against the Romanian state in another case related to the 1989 Revolution in Romania and the way the authorities have investigated the events. 17 Romanians filed complaints with the ECHR, saying that there had been no effective investigation into the violent suppression of the anti-government demonstrations in 1989 in Bucharest and Resita, in which their relatives had been killed. The ECHR ruled that each applicant should be paid a non-pecuniary damage of EUR 15,000. Back in 1990, military prosecutors in Bucharest and several other Romanian cities opened investigations into the use of force and the unlawful deprivation of liberty of the participants in demonstrations in December 1989. More than 1,200 people died in those operations, over 5,000 were injured, and several thousand people were unlawfully deprived of their liberty and subjected to ill-treatment, according to a document issued by the military prosecutor’s office at the High Court of Cassation and Justice in 2008, cited in an ECHR statement. The Romanians complained that the criminal investigation opened by the authorities in 1990 had been ineffective. They alleged in particular that Romania had failed to comply with the procedural requirements of the Article referring to the right to life. Case closed: Stress and fatigue are to blame for the 700 people dead in the Romanian Revolution European Court of Human Rights again rules against Romania in 1989 Revolution investigation Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com