Cardboard Justice
The trial continues in the killing of Gheorghe Ursu

Yesterday another court hearing took place in the trial case of Gheorghe Ursu’s killing, the dissident beaten to death by the political police of the Ceausescu regime.  At the previous hearing, the witnesses who testified seemed to have forgotten their own recent statements made under oath,  and on this occasion denied everything on the spot.  This time again there were witnesses therefore who retracted  what they had said before.  The most spectacular and, at the same time, hilarious case was that of Militia’s (the regular police not the political one, called Securitate) General Gheorghe Scarlat.  In 1985, he was Chief of the Department of Penal Investigations of  Militia. Turned into a “honorable” policeman after 1989, General Scarlat managed to regain the exact same high rank and position as that he had occupied during the communist regime.  Moreover, in 1990, he lead an commission of inquiry entrusted with the ‘clarification’ of the circumstances of Gheorghe Ursu’s killing.  He himself confirmed this fact in front of a court in 1994.  Yesterday however, he did not remember anything…Neither about the inquiry, nor about his previous declaration.  Likewise proceeded two other witnesses, Ion Munteanu and Gheorghe Manda. They changed their testimonies under pressure from the indicted.  Luckily, there have been also witnesses who maintained their previously made statements, during the penal investigation.  Gheorghe Pascale, Cristian Martin and Ilie Harsu, stated that Gheorghe Ursu was systematically tortured by the two informers introduced for this purpose in his cell, Marian Clita and Radu Gheorghe (Gicutza), under order from the Chief of the Jail and of Penal Investigations.  These statements can be easily corroborated now with those already existent in the penal investigation dossier.  Also, the testimony of another witness, Dan Popa, was confirmed by which he had maintained that he reported the torture Gheorghe Ursu was subjected to his superior, Shift Chief Stefan Burcea.  Burcea had told Popa to not get involved anymore in the case.  Popa underlined the fact as well that one of the indicted officers, Creanga Mihail, was well aware of Ursu’s situation.

Another witness, Florin Palamariu, confirmed that Clita Marian, Creanga’s henchman, was an informer.  Creanga was periodically calling Clita out of the room, to inform him about Ursu. 

Andrei Ursu, the son of the slain dissident, declared in exclusivity for Romania Libera (Free Romania, newspaper)  that he intends to sue (take action against) the witnesses who recanted their previous, under oath, testimonies.

Ion Traian Stefan