The "Ursu Case"

The solidarity of ravens
by Cornel Nistorescu Wednesday, 06 August 2003

Two brute militiamen, famous during the rule of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, were sentenced over aggravated manslaughter. I am talking about colonels Tudor Stanica and Mihai Creanga. Their sentence on July 14th, after almost twenty years since they committed the murder, was aimed at giving many people a tardy and useless satisfaction. Justice can be done. In a Romania with justice at orders, controlled by the government and the presidency, after lengthy fights, wasted time and upsetting experiences, we can see a way out of a trial. Tired judges, fed up with or embarrassed by the evidence of the case, passed the right sentence for a murder. The sentence for the killing of anticommunist dissident Gheorghe Ursu was a sort of last settlement of accounts for the atrocities committed by the two. From the long series of people terrorized by the militia while in custody at Rahova penitentiary, just only one case was brought before the court. At least that! The sentence to 22 years in prison, to be reduced by half and with immediate arrest of the two, proved to be a mere illusion. An omission of the justice. The communist state in Romania, still alive and strong, perfectly surviving under all sorts of democratic names, reacted at once. Our police, "so much changed for the better" suddenly started to count the flying ravens. How many fly to the North and how many to the East? But as for looking for the two fugitives, no way. It's exactly like then when the Petrosani police in 1994-1995 returned the prosecutor's office a warrant for the arrest of then miners' leader Miron Cozma, mentioning "person with unknown address". Things were similar in the case of the two much-feared former militia colonels. They could not be found anywhere. I am absolutely sure that Tudor Stanica, who became a financier and banker manager after 1990, kept close ties with important police officials, and that together with them, he decided in what places he should be looked for while he was at the railway station or at some cinema. Even more than that. The prosecutor's office headed by Tanase Joita filed an appeal against the court ruling. The institution which makes accusations, the institution which sends someone behind bars at orders, the institution which irremediably compromised itself since it has had Joita as the cherry on the pie, filed an appeal too. Let's get things straight! It is natural that the lawyers of the two convicts defend their clients and try to have their sentences reduced. This is one of the rules of the justices. But it seems strange to me that the prosecutor's office files an appeal and one of its representatives claims in court that the punishemnt for complicity in murder is too stiff. The structures of the totalitarian state, from which the prosecutor's office largely inherited its conduct, got mobilized in an "exemplary" way (in the traditional style) and filed an appeal against the court ruling. Just accidentally a prosecutor considered that the sentence is too stiff, exactly like it occurred to Ion Iliescu to pardon former miners' leader Miron Cozma. All that seemed to us to be a sign of the revival of justice in Romania, all that seemed to be a shred of hope is now falling apart. The residual forces of the totalitarian state are much stronger than we imagined. They dominate the political life, but also economy and the justice system. Finally, they dictate everything, including the sentence in Gheorghe Ursu's case. To have a justification on papers, the prosecutor's office under the Supreme Court of Justice in Bucharest sent us a communiqué saying that its appeal in favour of the two feared militiamen was filed over the inobservance of the provision in art. 334 in the Code of penal procedure (the count brought into discussion by the court was different from that based on which the two were convicted). We are supposed to swallow the lie, while the public opinion should understand that the structures of the communist state are still alive, strong, and were put into motion to protect two of its most detestable representatives. The solidarity of ravens has begun!

"GHEORGHE URSU" FOUNDATION

	The solidarity of ravens by Cornel Nistorescu Wednesday, 06 August 2003 Two brute militiamen, famous during the rule of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, were sentenced over aggravated manslaughter. I am talking about colonels Tudor Stanica and Mihai Creanga. Their sentence on July 14th, after almost twenty years since they committed the murder, was aimed at giving many people a tardy and useless satisfaction. Justice can be done. In a Romania with justice at orders, controlled by the government and the presidency, after lengthy fights, wasted time and upsetting experiences, we can see a way out of a trial. Tired judges, fed up with or embarrassed by the evidence of the case, passed the right sentence for a murder. The sentence for the killing of anticommunist dissident Gheorghe Ursu was a sort of last settlement of accounts for the atrocities committed by the two. From the long series of people terrorized by the militia while in custody at Rahova penitentiary, just only one case was brought before the court. At least that! The sentence to 22 years in prison, to be reduced by half and with immediate arrest of the two, proved to be a mere illusion. An omission of the justice. The communist state in Romania, still alive and strong, perfectly surviving under all sorts of democratic names, reacted at once. Our police, "so much changed for the better" suddenly started to count the flying ravens. How many fly to the North and how many to the East? But as for looking for the two fugitives, no way. It's exactly like then when the Petrosani police in 1994-1995 returned the prosecutor's office a warrant for the arrest of then miners' leader Miron Cozma, mentioning "person with unknown address". Things were similar in the case of the two much-feared former militia colonels. They could not be found anywhere. I am absolutely sure that Tudor Stanica, who became a financier and banker manager after 1990, kept close ties with important police officials, and that together with them, he decided in what places he should be looked for while he was at the railway station or at some cinema. Even more than that. The prosecutor's office headed by Tanase Joita filed an appeal against the court ruling. The institution which makes accusations, the institution which sends someone behind bars at orders, the institution which irremediably compromised itself since it has had Joita as the cherry on the pie, filed an appeal too. Let's get things straight! It is natural that the lawyers of the two convicts defend their clients and try to have their sentences reduced. This is one of the rules of the justices. But it seems strange to me that the prosecutor's office files an appeal and one of its representatives claims in court that the punishemnt for complicity in murder is too stiff. The structures of the totalitarian state, from which the prosecutor's office largely inherited its conduct, got mobilized in an "exemplary" way (in the traditional style) and filed an appeal against the court ruling. Just accidentally a prosecutor considered that the sentence is too stiff, exactly like it occurred to Ion Iliescu to pardon former miners' leader Miron Cozma. All that seemed to us to be a sign of the revival of justice in Romania, all that seemed to be a shred of hope is now falling apart. The residual forces of the totalitarian state are much stronger than we imagined. They dominate the political life, but also economy and the justice system. Finally, they dictate everything, including the sentence in Gheorghe Ursu's case. To have a justification on papers, the prosecutor's office under the Supreme Court of Justice in Bucharest sent us a communiqué saying that its appeal in favour of the two feared militiamen was filed over the inobservance of the provision in art. 334 in the Code of penal procedure (the count brought into discussion by the court was different from that based on which the two were convicted). We are supposed to swallow the lie, while the public opinion should understand that the structures of the communist state are still alive, strong, and were put into motion to protect two of its most detestable representatives. The solidarity of ravens has begun!