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The Trial of Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu was a summary trial held on December 25, 1989 by an Exceptional Military Tribunal created at the request of Council of the National Salvation Front resulting in the death sentence and execution of the Ceaușescus.

Widely considered a kangaroo court or show trial, the main charge was genocide, murdering "over 60,000 people" during the revolution in Timișoara, a false claim. Nevertheless, the charges didn't affect the trial, as the verdict had been already decided before the Tribunal had been created.

Nicolae Ceaușescu refused to recognize the Tribunal, arguing for its lack of constitutional basis and claimed that the revolutionary authorities were part of a Soviet plot.

Arrest

On December 22, during the 1989 Romanian Revolution, Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu left the Central Committee by helicopter toward Snagov, from which they left soon after towards Pitești. The helicopter pilot claimed to be in danger of anti-aircraft fire, so he landed on the Bucharest - Târgoviște road, near Găești. They stopped a car driven by a certain Dr. Nicolae Decă, who took them to Văcăreşti, after which he informed the local authorities that the Ceaușescus were going toward Târgoviște. The Ceaușescus took another car and were arrested by soldiers from a local army garrison near Târgoviște.

Creation of the Tribunal

As the new authorities heard the news of their apprehension from General Andrei Kemenici, the commander of the army unit, they began to discuss what to do with the Ceaușescus. Victor Atanasie Stănculescu and Gelu Voican Voiculescu wanted a quick execution, while Iliescu supported holding a trial first.

During the evening of December 24, Stănculescu sent the secret code "recourse to the method" to Kemenici, referring to the execution of the Ceaușescus. Iliescu then ordered that they should first have trial, but with a predetermined verdict.

Charges

The charges were published in Monitorul Oficial the day after the execution:

• Genocide - over 60,000 victims
• Subversion of state power by organizing armed actions against the people and state power.
• Offense of destruction of public property by destroying and damaging buildings, explosions in cities etc.
• Undermining the national economy.
• Trying to flee the country using funds of over $1 billion deposited in foreign banks

Trial

Ceaușescu defended himself by arguing that the Tribunal was against the Constitution of Romania and that only the Great National Assembly had the power to depose him. He argued that it was a coup d'etat organized by the Soviets.

Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu were condemned to death in a Stalinist-style trial. At one point, their forcefully-assigned lawyers abandoned their clients' defense and joined with the prosecutor, accusing them of capital crimes instead of defending them. No offer of proof was made for the Ceaușescus' alleged crimes. They were tried based on references, solely by offense-name, to criminal acts they had committed in the opinion of prosecutors, or as alleged in press reports. Various irregularities presented themselves, or became apparent post-trial:

• An accusation of genocide was never proved.

• The Ceaușescus were accused of having US $1 billion in foreign bank accounts. No such accounts have been found.

• Nicolae Ceaușescu openly disavowed the court. One of the Ceaușescus' lawyers suggested before the execution that since the pair did not recognize the tribunal, there was no avenue for appealing the verdict. Even if we take for granted Ceaușescu's refusal to file an appeal, that could not be examined the court which passed the verdict, but the appeal or lack of appeal would be a competence of a higher court, and the lack of appeal could only become evident after the legal period for filing an appeal had passed.

• The judges' verdict allowed for appealing to a higher court. However, the Ceaușescus were executed five minutes after the verdict, rendering that provision moot;

• The person who signed the decree for organizing the court, coup leader Ion Iliescu, lacked legal power to do so. The order actually was handwritten in a bathroom in the Romanian Department of Defense.

• Romanian law prohibited carrying out the death sentence less than ten days after a verdict. After the Ceaușescus' execution, the death penalty was abolished in Romania.

• The coup leaders said the execution of the Ceaușescus was necessary to stop terrorists from attacking the new political order. However, no terrorists or terrorist cells were found to have been active in Romania.

• Initially, Iliescu did not wish to carry out the executions, but General Victor Stănculescu conditioned the support of the Romanian Army on the couple's being shot. After a few hours of debating this option, Iliescu agreed with Stănculescu and signed the decree for organizing the court.

Before the execution, Nicolae Ceaușescu declared, "We could have been shot without having this masquerade!"

Execution

The Ceaușescus were executed by a firing squad consisting of elite paratroop regiment soldiers: Captain Ionel Boeru, Sergeant-Major Georghin Octavian and Dorin-Marian Cirlan, while reportedly hundreds of others also volunteered. The firing squad began shooting as soon as the two were in position against a wall. The firing happened too soon for the film crew covering the events to record it. Before his sentence was carried out, Nicolae Ceaușescu sang "The Internationale" while being led up against the wall. After the shooting, the bodies were covered with canvas. The hasty show trial and the images of the dead Ceaușescus were videotaped and the footage promptly released in numerous western countries. Later that day, it was also shown on Romanian television. The Ceaușescus were the last people to be executed in Romania before the abolition of capital punishment on 7 January 1990

Notes

1. ^ Burakovski, p.273
2. Burakovski, p.272
3. Monitorul Oficial, Anul I, Nr. 3, December 26, 1989
4. ^ Nicolae și Elena Ceaușescu: „Împreună am luptat, să murim împreună!“ Adevărul, 19 December 2009.
5. ^ s:ro:Stenograma procesului Ceaușescu, translated at s:Transcript of the closed trial of Nicolae and Elena Ceauşescu.
6. Ionuţ Ţene Cine a ordonat execuţia lui Nicolae Ceauşescu? Napocanews.ro
7. ^ BBC Days That Shook the World Season 3, Episode 8, "The Road To Revolution: The Execution of Ceauşescu/The Iranian Revolution"
8. Stanislaw Frankowski, "Post-Communist Europe", in Hodgkinson, Peter and Rutherford, Andrew. Capital Punishment: Global Issues and Prospects. Waterside Press (1996), ISBN 1-872870-32-5. p. 224.
9. R.M. Dan Voinea: Nu au existat teroristi in decembrie '89. Sotii Ceausescu au fost ucisi pentru a salva administratia comunista, care dureaza si azi Hotnews.ro

References

• Adam Burakovski (2011). Dictatura lui Nicolae Ceaușescu, 1965-1989 - Geniul Carpaților. Polirom. ISBN 978-973-46-1963-4.

• 1989 in Romania
• 1989 in law
• Ceauşescu family
• Trials in Romania
• Trials of political people
• Filmed deaths