Romania sentenced again at European Court of Human Rights

Romania was sentenced again at the European Court of Human Rights for failure to solve the anti-communist Revolution file. This time, Romania must pay EUR 832,500 to 81 people.

The Court ruled on Tuesday on the complaints submitted by 81 victims or people with rights deriving from victims of the armed repression that took place beginning with December 21, 1989 in Bucharest and in other cities in the country, according to Mediafax newswire.

The investigations related to the bloody events in cities where they took place, except for Timisoara, are still ongoing.

The plaintiffs accused the authorities of failure to carry out an efficient investigation into the death of their dear ones and into the ill treatments that they, or people close to them, were subjected to during the December 1989 protests.

The Romanian government defended its case by saying that the Revolution file was quite complex and takes long to establish the facts, given the number of people involved and the political and social stakes in this file.

The Court agreed that the case was complex, but nevertheless ruled that in spite of the political and social stakes, the investigations have been too long.

The Court also said the importance of this file for the Romanian society at large should have prompted the state to give it especial importance, given that the file is time-sensitive. The Court ruled that articles 2 and 3 in the European Convention Of Human Rights, regarding the right to live and respectively, forbidding torture, were violated in this case.

The Court granted EUR 15,000 to each of the 30 plaintiffs whose right to life was violated, and EUR 7,500 to the other 51 plaintiffs who were subjected to ill treatments.

In total, the Romanian state must pay to the 81 plaintiffs a total of EUR 832,500, to which are added another EUR 1,500 as trial expenses.

This is just in a series of such sentences that Romania has received from the European Court of Human Rights.

In November 2014, the Romanian state was sentenced to pay EUR 45,900 to 34 former revolutionaries.

In March 2013, the Romanian state had to pay EUR 350,000 to 72 victims of the Revolution in Timisoara.

In May 2011, the Court ruled that the Romanian state should pay damages of EUR 6,000 to Teodor Maries, president of the 21 Decembrie Association, and EUR 15,000 to other two people.

In March 2011, other five Romanians won their case, and the Romanian government had to pay damages of EUR 52,000.

In October 20, the Romanian state was sentenced to pay EUR 25,000 damages to the family of an army officer killed in December 1989 by the anti-communist protesters.

On December 8, 2009, four Timisoara residents received EUR 5,000 each, after they claimed their right to a fair trial had been violated.

According to official statistics, 1,142 people lost their lives, 3,138 were injured and 760 people were withheld during the events in 1989, writes Mediafax.

Otilia Haraga

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