ICCJ: Ion Iliescu can be investigated for death of four during miners' raid

The High Court of Cassation and Justice (ICCJ) admitted a request of the General Prosecution to reopen the criminal investigation against former president Ion Iliescu about the death of four people during the miners' raid of June 13-15, 1990.   That is a part of the miners' raid case in which Ion Iliescu was indicted in June 2007, by former prosecutor Dan Voinea, for participating in a serious homicide, next to Mihai Chitac, former interior minister, and his deputy, general Gheorghe Andrita, in the night of June 13-15, 1990.   Later on, in December 2007, the then general prosecutor Laura Codruta Kovesi, denied beginning a criminal investigation against the former president and, in October 2008, prosecutors of the Penal Investigation and Forensics Section of the General Prosecution decided not to begin the criminal investigation against Ion Iliescu.   Mention should be made that the main body of the miners' raid file was sent to court by military prosecutors in June 2017, Ion Iliescu being accused, next to Petre Roman, Miron Cozma, Gelu Voican Voiculescu and Virgil Magureanu for crimes against humanity.   In December 2020, magistrates of the High Court of Cassation and Justice decided to return the file to the Military Prosecution, to start from scratch the criminal investigation after all evidence gathered by prosecutors were canceled.   Military prosecutors said, that on June 11 and 12, 1990, state authorities decided to begin a violent attack against demonstrators who were in University Square, Bucharest, to militate mainly for the adoption of point 8 of Timisoara Proclamation and peacefully expressed their political opinions, in contradiction with those of the majority of people who made up political power at that moment.   Forces of the Interior Ministry, National Defense Ministry, SRI and over 10,000 miners and other workers from several areas of the country participate in the attack. According to the Military Prosecution, the attack began in the morning of June 13, 1990 with the following consequences: the killing of 4 people, the physical attack of 1,388 people, the arrest of 1,250 people for political reasons.   Former president Ion Iliescu was accused by military prosecutors of being the one who ordered the forced evacuation of demonstrators in University Square, by using workers from big enterprises in Bucharest.