Ion Iliescu

Some alleged Iliescu had connections to the KGB, the allegations continued during 2003–2008, when Russian dissident Vladimir Bukovsky, who had been granted access to Soviet archives, declared that Iliescu and some of the NSF members were KGB agents, that Iliescu had been in close connection with Mikhail Gorbachev ever since they had allegedly met during Iliescu's stay in Moscow, and that the Romanian Revolution of 1989 was a plot organized by the KGB to regain control of the country's policies (gradually lost under Ceaușescu's rule).[13] The only hard evidence published was a discussion between Gorbachev and Bulgaria's Aleksandar Lilov from 23 May 1990 (after Iliescu's victory in the 20 May elections) in which Gorbachev says that Iliescu holds a "calculated position", and that despite sharing common views with Iliescu, Gorbachev wanted to avoid sharing this impression with the public.[14]

He, along with other figures in the leading FSN, was allegedly responsible for calling the Jiu Valley miners to Bucharest on 28 January and 14 June 1990 to end the protests of the citizens gathered in University Square, Bucharest, protests aimed against the ex-communist leaders of Romania (like himself). The pejorative term for this demonstration was the Golaniad (from the Romanian golan, rascal). On 13 June, an attempt of the authorities to remove from the square around 100 protesters, which had remained in the street even after the May elections had confirmed Iliescu and the FSN, resulted in attacks against several state institutions, such as the Ministry of Interior, the Bucharest Police Headquarters and the National Television. Iliescu issued a call to the Romanian people to come and defend the government, prompting several groups of miners to descend on the capital, armed with wooden clubs and bats. They trashed the University of Bucharest, some newspaper offices and the headquarters of opposition parties, claiming that they were havens of decadence and immorality – drugs, firearms and munitions, "an automatic typewriter", and fake currency. The June 1990 Mineriad in particular was widely criticized both at home and internationally, with one historian (Andrei Pippidi) comparing the events to Nazi Germany's Kristallnacht.[15][16] Government inquiries later established that the miners were infiltrated and instigated by former Securitate operatives.[17] In February 1994 a Bucharest court "found two security officers, Colonel Ion Nicolae and warrant officer Corneliu Dumitrescu, guilty of ransacking the house of Ion Rațiu, a leading figure in the Christian Democratic National Peasants' Party, during the miners' incursion and stealing $100,000."[18]

In 1992, three years after the revolution which overthrew the Communist dictatorship, the Romanian government allowed King Michael to return to his country for Easter celebrations, where he drew large crowds. In Bucharest over a million people turned out to see him. Michael's popularity alarmed the government of President Ion Iliescu, so Michael was forbidden to visit Romania again for five years. In 1997, after Iliescu's defeat by Emil Constantinescu, the Romanian Government restored Michael's citizenship and again allowed him to visit the country.

In December 2001, Iliescu pardoned three inmates convicted for bribery, including George Tănase, former Financial Guard head commissioner for Ialomița.[19] Iliescu had to revoke Tănase's pardon a few days later due to the media outcry, claiming that "a legal adviser was superficial in analyzing the case".[20][21] Later, the humanitarian reasons invoked in the pardon were contradicted by another medical expert opinion.[22] Another controversial pardon was that of Dan Tartagă—a businessman from Brașov that, while drunk, had run over and killed two people on a pedestrian crossing. He was sentenced to three years and a half but was pardoned after only a couple of months.[23] Tartagă was later sentenced to a two-year sentence for fraud.[24]

Most controversial of all, on 15 December 2004, a few days before the end of his last term, Iliescu pardoned 47 convicts, including Miron Cozma, the leader of the miners during the early 1990s, who had been sentenced in 1999 to 18 years in prison in conjunction with the September 1991 Mineriad. This has attracted harsh criticism from all Romanian media.[25] Many of the pardoned had been convicted for corruption or other economic crimes, while one had been imprisoned for his involvement in the attempts at suppressing the 1989 Revolution.[25]

In the last days of his president mandate, he awarded the National Order Steaua României (rank of ceremonial knighthood) to the ultra-nationalist controversial politician Corneliu Vadim Tudor, a gesture which drew criticism in the press and prompted Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel, fifteen Radio Free Europe journalists, Timișoara mayor Gheorghe Ciuhandu, songwriter Alexandru Andrieș, and historian Randolph Braham to return their Romanian honours in protest. The leader of the Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania, Béla Markó, did not show up to claim the award he received on the same occasion. President Traian Băsescu revoked the award granted to Tudor on 24 May 2007, but a lawsuit is ongoing even after Băsescu's decree was declared constitutional.[26]

Ion Iliescu is mentioned in the report of the Council of Europe investigator into illegal activities of the CIA in Europe, Dick Marty. He is pointed out as one of the people who authorized or at least knew about and have to stand accountable for torture prisons at Mihail Kogălniceanu airbase from 2003 to 2005.[27] In April 2015, Iliescu confirmed that he had granted a CIA request for a site in Romania, but was not aware of the nature of the site, describing it as a small gesture of goodwill to an ally in advance of Romania's eventual accession to NATO. Iliescu further stated that had he known of the intended use of the site, he would certainly not have approved the request.[28]

In 2016, a previously closed legal case regarding Crimes Against Humanity committed by the interim government headed by Iliescu during the Romanian Revolution was reopened.[29] Authorities had, in 2015, after 26 years of prolonged investigation, concluded that there was no evidence with which they could prosecute.[29] However, in 2016, the case was ordered to be re-examined by the interim General Prosecutor.[29] By 2017, military prosecutors had alleged that the events of 1989 were orchestrated by a misinformation campaign on the part of Iliescu's government, which were disseminated through broadcasting media.[30] Reportedly, this investigation lead to speculation of whether the conflict of 1989 could be classified as a revolution, or conversely, as a Coup d'état.[29]

In April 2018, the General Prosecutor asked that Iliescu be put on trial. President Klaus Iohannis approved this request, as well as the proceeding of the prosecution of Petre Roman.[31]

Iliescu was charged for his alleged role in the killing of 862 people during the revolution, at which time he headed the National Salvation Front interim government, as well as the spreading of misinformation.[30] Allegations included Iliescu's apparent involvement in the "Mineriad" case, in which miners quashed protests against the government. The initial charges, brought forward in 2005, were shortly dropped, until 2014 when the European Court of Human Rights found Iliescu's lack of investigation into the events of Mineriad to be in violation of human rights to life, freedom from inhumane and degrading treatment and demonstration[29] and again in 2015 when the Military Prosecutor's Section within the Prosecutor's Office and the Justice Office reopened investigations into the Mineriad protests, accusing Iliescu, along with other accused perpetrators, of coordinating a general and systematic attack against the civilian population during the events from 13 until 15 June 1990 in Bucharest.[29] Finally, on 13 June 2017, the Prosecutor's office indicted Iliescu for crimes against humanity for actions taken by Iliescu during the Mineriad protests. The statement released by the office claimed that the attack illegally involved forces of the Interior Ministry, Defence Ministry, Romanian Intelligence service, as well as the miners and other workers from various areas of the country.[29] The office further alleged that attacks were also carried out against peaceful residents.[29]

Ion Iliescu at the Romanian Television during the Romanian Revolution of 1989, the broadcast was one of the key points of accusation against Iliescu.

On 8 April 2019, Ion Iliescu was officially charged with crimes against humanity[32][33] Iliescu's lawyer, Adrian Georgescu, complained that the file was illegitimate,[34] due to its lack of a prosecutor.[33] In December of the same year, Iliescu's trial began to focus on allegations that he had intentionally spread disinformation through the use of broadcast media with the aid of Aurel-Dragoș Munteanu, a member of the National Salvation Front and the director of TVR during the revolution of 1989, meaning that he was greatly influential in the Nation Salvation Front's ability to foster support in the Romanian public.[35] Among the claims investigated were Iliescu's broadcast claim that "unknown terrorists" were responsible for the deaths of Elena and Nicolae Ceaușescu.[36]

Amid candlelit vigils and other memorial services during the 30th anniversary of the Romanian Revolution, several survivors of the conflict spoke out against Iliescu's trial, with many claiming it is a publicity stunt on the part of Klaus Iohannis to gain popularity from the Romanian population that still seek the truth about the revolution.[37] Currently, Iliescu's trial is not expected to reach a definitive conclusion.[37] The trial was first postponed to February 2020 due to Iliescu's declining health and the slow pace of legal proceedings.[38] and then later postponed due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus in of 2020.