| Part of theRomanian Revolution | |
  Nicolae Ceaușescu (left), President of theSocialist Republic of Romania from 1974, also General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party since 1965, and his wife Elena Ceaușescu (right), were executed following trial on 25 December 1989. | |
| Date | 25 December 1989 |
|---|---|
| Convicted | Nicolae Ceaușescu andElena Ceaușescu |
| Charges |
|
| Sentence | Death |
Thetrial and execution of Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu were held on 25 December 1989 inTârgoviște,Romania.[1] The trial was conducted by an Extraordinary Military Tribunal, adrumhead court-martial created at the request of a newly formed group called theNational Salvation Front. Its outcome waspredetermined, and it resulted inguilty verdicts anddeath sentences for formerRomanian President andGeneral Secretary of the Romanian Communist PartyNicolae Ceaușescu, and his wife,Elena Ceaușescu.[2] The main charge wasgenocide. Romanian state television announced that Nicolae Ceaușescu had been responsible for the deaths of 60,000 people;[3] the announcement did not make clear whether this was the number killed during theRomanian revolution inTimișoara[4][5][6] or throughout the 24 years of Ceaușescu's rule.
Nevertheless, the charges did not affect the trial. GeneralVictor Stănculescu had brought with him a specially selected team of paratroopers, handpicked earlier in the morning to act as afiring squad. Before the legal proceedings began, Stănculescu had already selected the spot where the execution would take place: along one side of the wall in the barracks' square.[7]
Nicolae Ceaușescu refused to recognize the tribunal, arguing its lack of constitutional basis and claiming that the revolutionary authorities were part of a Soviet plot.[7] His refusal to recognize the tribunal did not prevent the firing squad from carrying out the sentence immediately, on the same day as the trial.
On 22 December 1989, during theRomanian Revolution, Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu left the Central Committee building in Bucharest by helicopter towardsSnagov, from where they left soon afterwards towards Pitești.[8]Vasile Maluțan, the helicopter pilot, claimed to be in danger from anti-aircraft fire, so he landed on theBucharest–Târgoviște road, nearGăești. They stopped a car driven by a Nicolae Decă, who took them toVăcărești, after which he informed the local authorities that the Ceaușescus were going toward Târgoviște. The Ceaușescus took another car and told its driver, Nicolae Petrișor, to drive them to Târgoviște. During the trip, the Ceaușescus heard news of the revolution on the car radio (by then the revolutionaries had taken control of the state media), causing Ceaușescu to angrily denounce the revolution as acoup d'état. Petrișor took the couple to an agricultural centre near Târgoviște, where they were locked in an office and later arrested by soldiers from a local armygarrison.[7][9]
As the new authorities heard the news of their arrest from General Andrei Kemenici, the commander of the army unit, they began to discuss what to do with the Ceaușescus.[7]Victor Stănculescu, who was Ceaușescu's lastdefence minister before going over to the revolution, wanted a quick execution, as did Gelu Voican Voiculescu.Ion Iliescu, Romania's provisional president, supported holding a trial first.[7][10]
During the evening of 24 December 1989, Stănculescu sent the secret code "recourse to the method" to Kemenici, referring to the execution of the Ceaușescus. A ten-member tribunal was formed to try the case.[11] The members of the panel were all military judges.[12]
The Independent characterized the trial as "what can best be described as an egregiously conductedsummary trial, at worst akangaroo court".[13]
The charges were published inMonitorul Oficial the day after the execution:[14]
The morning of the trial, prominent lawyer Nicu Teodorescu was having Christmas breakfast with his family when he was telephoned by an aide to Iliescu, and asked by the National Salvation Front to be the Ceaușescus'defence counsel. He replied that it would be "an interesting challenge".[15] Teodorescu met the couple for the first time in the Târgoviște "court room", when he was given ten minutes to confer with his clients. With so little time to prepare any defence, he tried to explain to them that their best hope of avoiding the death sentence was toplead insanity. The Ceaușescus brushed off the idea; according to Teodorescu, "When I suggested it, Elena in particular said it was an outrageous set-up. They felt deeply insulted...They rejected my help after that."[15]
| Trial of Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu | |
|---|---|
| Court | Exceptional Military Tribunal, adrumhead court-martial created at the request of a newly formed group called theNational Salvation Front |
| Decided | 25 December 1989 |
| Verdict | Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu were convicted of all charges and condemned to death |
| Charge | The main charge wasgenocide. |
| Court membership | |
| Judge sitting | Victor Stănculescu |
At 5:30 a.m. on 25 December, the two were taken by anarmoured personnel carrier to the garrison command office where the trial would take place. After the medical visits, they were brought into the improvised courtroom.[1] The trial of Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu was very brief, lasting approximately one hour.[16][17][18] Ceaușescu defended himself by arguing that the tribunal was against the1965 Constitution of Romania and that only theGreat National Assembly had the power to remove him. He argued that it was acoup d'état organized by theSoviets.[7]
Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu were convicted of all charges and condemned to death in what amounted to ashow trial.[19] At one point, their forcibly assigned lawyers abandoned their clients'defence and joined with theprosecutor, accusing them ofcapital crimes instead of defending them.[20][non-primary source needed] Nooffer of proof was made for the Ceaușescus' alleged crimes. They were tried based on references, solely by offence-name orhearsay, to criminal acts they had committed in the opinion of prosecutors, or as alleged in press reports.[clarification needed] Various irregularities presented themselves, or became apparent after the trial:[19][20]
The Ceaușescus were executed at 2:50 p.m. local time at Military Unit UM 01417 from Târgoviște on 25 December 1989.[1] The execution was carried out by a firing squad consisting of eight paratroop regiment soldiers brought in by two helicopters from theBoteni base: Captain Ionel Boeru, Sergeant-Major Georghin Octavian and Dorin-Marian Cîrlan, and five othernon-commissioned officers who were selected from 20 volunteers.[1][28] Before the execution, Nicolae Ceaușescu declared, "We could have been shot without having this masquerade!"[19] The Ceaușescus' hands were tied by four soldiers before the execution.[29]Simon Sebag Montefiore wrote that Elena Ceaușescu screamed, "You sons of bitches!" as she was led outside and lined up against the wall, while Nicolae Ceaușescu began singing a fragment of "The Internationale" before the soldiers opened fire.[1][30]
The firing squad began shooting as soon as the two were positioned against a wall. The execution happened too quickly for the television crew assigned to the trial and death sentence to videotape it in full; only the last round of shots was filmed. In 2014, retired Captain Boeru told a reporter forThe Guardian newspaper that he believes that the shots he fired from his rifle were solely responsible for the deaths of both of the Ceaușescus, because, of the three soldiers in the firing squad, he was the only one who remembered to switch his assault rifle to fire fully automatic, and at least one member of the group hesitated to shoot for several seconds.[31] In 1990, a member of the National Salvation Front reported that 120 bullets were found in the couple's bodies.[28]
In 1989, Prime MinisterPetre Roman told French television that the execution was carried out quickly due to rumours that loyalists would attempt to rescue the couple.[32]
After the execution, the bodies were covered with canvas.[33] The Ceaușescus' corpses were taken to Bucharest and buried inGhencea Cemetery on 30 December 1989.[34]
The bodies were exhumed for identification and reburied in 2010.[35] Groups of Ceaușescu's supporters visit to place flowers on the grave, with large numbers of pensioners gathering on 26 January, Nicolae's birthday.[36]
The hasty trial and the images of the dead Ceaușescus were videotaped and the footage promptly released in numerous Western countries two days after the execution.[37] Later that day, it was also shown on Romanian television.[37]
In 2009Valentin Ceaușescu, elder son of the Ceaușescus, argued that the revolutionary forces should have killed his parents when they had arrested them on 22 December since they did not need any trial.[38] After making vague comments about the incident, Ion Iliescu stated that it was "quite shameful, but necessary".[9] In a similar vein, Stănculescu told the BBC in 2009 that the trial was "not just, but it was necessary" because the alternative would have been seeing Nicolaelynched on the streets of Bucharest.[10]
Several countries criticized the new rulers of Romania after the execution due to lack of public trial. The United States government was the most prominent critic of the trial, stating: "We regret the trial did not take place in an open and public fashion."[32]
On 1 March 1990, Colonel Gică Popa, who had presided over the trial and been promoted to general, was found dead in his office. His death was ruled a suicide.[39] The Ceaușescus were the last people to be executed in Romania before theabolition of capital punishment on 7 January 1990.[40]
In December 2018, Iliescu, former Deputy Prime MinisterGelu Voican Voiculescu, formerRomanian Air Force chief Iosif Rus, and formerNational Salvation Front council member Emil Dumitrescu were indicted by Romanian military prosecutors forcrimes against humanity for the deaths that occurred during the Romanian Revolution, most of which took place after Ceaușescu was overthrown. The indictment also made reference to the conviction and execution of the Ceaușescus "after a mockery of a trial".[41] The investigation that led to the indictments had previously been closed in 2009, but was re-opened in 2016 as the result of a trial at theEuropean Court of Human Rights.[42]
Swiss theatre directorMilo Rau and his International Institute of Political Murder (IIPM) wrote and produced the stage productionThe Last Days of the Ceausescus in 2009. The production was a re-enactment of the trial, and IIPM was able to obtain testimonies from people directly involved in theRomanian revolution (including dissidents, politicians, revolutionaries and ordinary Romanians) and the trial of the Ceaușescus (including the general who betrayed them, the officer who captured them, and the soldier who shot them).[43]
A few days before the premiere at theOdeon Theatre inBucharest[43] in 2010, Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu's son-in-law Mircea Oprean (the widower ofZoia, who died in 2006), forced his way into rehearsals, saying that he and his brother-in-lawValentin Ceaușescu had registered the name "Ceaușescu" as a trademark in 2008, and it could not be used in the title. A lawsuit followed, and the director was forced to cancel the show after two performances.[44]
The show then premiered atHebbel am Ufer (HAU) inBerlin, before touring Switzerland at the Schlachthaus Theater inBern, Theaterhaus Gessnerallee inZurich, and Südpol inLucerne.[43] It was also later produced at theFestival d'Avignon in France,[45] and a documentary film (Die letzten Tage der Ceausescus) was made about it.[46][47][48]
Works related toTranscript of the closed trial of Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu at Wikisource