Romania's High Court rules reopening case against torturers of anticommunist dissident Gheorghe Ursu

The High Court (ICCJ) admitted, on December 12, the request of the descendants of dissident Gheorghe Ursu to review the sentence by which his torturers were acquitted.

A similar request, filed by the Prosecutor's Office of the Bucharest Court of Appeal, was also admitted, and the case will be sent to the Bucharest Court of Appeal for retrial.

The decision is final, Rfi.ro reported. The judges' decision was also welcomed by the minister of justice. "I thank the prosecutors for taking all the steps," Alina Gorghiu posted on social media.

The torturers of Romanian communist regime opponent Gheorghe Ursu, namely Marin Pârvulescu and Vasile Hodiş, were acquitted in July.

The High Court of Cassation and Justice ordered the definitive acquittal of former Securitate officers Marin Pîrvulescu and Vasile Hodiş, who were accused of torturing Gheorghe Ursu.

The Supreme Court rejected the appeals filed by prosecutors and Andrei Ursu as unfounded and upheld the acquittal decision applied in October 2019 by the Bucharest Court of Appeal.

In the same case, Tudor Postelnicu (deceased), the former head of the State Security Department, was acquitted of being complicit in inhumane treatment.

Gheorghe Ursu, an engineer, poet, and writer, was investigated by the Securitate in the '80s for sending letters to Radio Free Europe and keeping a journal where he recorded the horrors of the communist regime. Prosecutors claim that from January to November 1985, Ursu was subject to informative and judicial surveillance for acts or deeds considered hostile to the communist regime and was arrested on September 21, 1985. He died on November 17, 1985.

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