At the IICCR’s notification, 210 former penitentiary commanders of communist Romania to be inquired by the Prosecutor’s Office under the accusation of genocide
On Wednesday, 23 May 2007, the Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes in Romania (IICCR) organised a press conference, announcing it lodged a notification against 210 former penitentiary commanders of communist Romania under the accusation of genocide. The press conference was held at the IICCR’s premises, 18 Matei Voievod Street, Bucharest.
In conformity with the Romanian Government’s Decree No. 1 724/2005, the Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes in Romania (IICCR) is qualified to investigate and to identify the crimes, the abuses and the human rights’ violations during the communist regime in Romania, as well as to notify the state’s criminal investigation departments when such cases are discovered.
Pursuing the objectives stated within its setting-up Decree, the IICCR lodged a notification against 210 former commanders of penitentiaries, labour camps or labour colonies, where political prisoners had been detained during the communist regime. The 210 persons were identified by the Institute’s experts during their researches within the Archives of the National Administration Center for Penitentiaries (ANP).
The IICCR’s representatives consider that, in the case of the former commanders, one has to admit the repressive and discretionary nature of their actions. The inhumane treatment administered to the former political prisoners bears the mark of a mass phenomenon that encompassed the entire country. Moreover, it can be added that the enforcement of such treatment was not the result of individual acts only. The former commanders of penitentiaries, labour camps or labour colonies, where prisoners were administered inhumane treatments, acted as a collective, and responsibility consequently reverts to all of them. The 210 former commanders will be inquired by the Military Prosecutor’s Office under the accusation of genocide.