Bucharest Court of Appeal decides former president Iliescu can be tried in Revolution Case

The Bucharest Court of Appeal on Wednesday ordered the start of the trial on the merits of the 'Revolution' case, in which former president Ion Iliescu, former deputy prime minister Gelu Voican Voiculescu and Iosif Rus, former head of the Military Aviation, are accused of committing crimes against humanity, but the decision is not final.

After several postponements, the court rejected all the exceptions and requests raised by Ion Iliescu's lawyers, the legality of the indictment drawn up by the prosecutors being established.

The Revolutie file has been circulating between the Bucharest courts and prosecutor's offices for four years due to procedural reasons.

In the first phase, Ion Iliescu was sent to trial by the Military Prosecutor's Office in April 2019, but the file was returned to the Prosecutor's Office two years later by the Supreme Court (ICCJ) judges, citing irregularities in the indictment.

The Supreme Court then decided to exclude from the criminal prosecution material several pieces of evidence, including the "statements" containing the reports made by Gelu Voican Voiculescu and Ion Iliescu before the Senatorial Committee, reports of the Parliament, a point of view from the Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI) or documents from the Ministry of National Defence (MApN) archive.

AGERPRES