BUCHAREST COURT HANDS OUT JAIL SENTENCES IN URSU CASE
Radio Free Europe – 14 July 2003

A Bucharest court on 14 July found two former officers guilty of first-degree murder in the slaying of dissident writer and engineer Gheorghe Ursu, who was killed after being arrested in 1985, Mediafax and international media reported. The court sentenced Tudor Stanica and Mihail Creanga, both formerly high-ranking police officers, to 22 years in prison. (A Romanian amnesty act reduces by half any sentences for crimes committed before 1998.) The men will each have to pay an additional 333 million lei (over $10,000) in compensation to each of three members of Ursu's family. Ursu was arrested in September 1985 for his anti-communist views and writings and his ties to Romanian emigres. Stanica and Creanga planned Ursu's murder using prisoner Marian Clita, who has already been sentenced to 20 years for the murder. The court still has to rule on one other officer, Stefan Burcea, who has been charged in the case. ZsM