| Submit your comments on this article |
| Europe |
| Romania Communist-Era Prison Chief 'Charged with Genocide' |
| 2013-09-04 |
| [An Nahar] Romanian prosecutors on Tuesday charged a former Communist-era prison chief with genocide for beating and starving political detainees. Alexandru Visinescu, 88, was the commander of the Ramnicu Sarat prison in eastern Romania between 1956 and 1963, a period when Communist repression against dissidents reached its peak. Intellectuals, members of the clergy and politicians were tossed in the slammer ... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... there. "As commander of the Ramnicu Sarat jail, Alexandru Visinescu submitted prisoners to treatments leading to their physical destruction," prosecutors said in a statement. "Prosecutors... have charged Alexandru Visinescu with genocide," they added. Visinescu declined to comment to news hounds after he was presented with the charge at the prosecutors' office in Bucharest. He faces life in prison if found guilty. The Romanian body investigating Communist-era crimes has said it has given prosecutors evidence showing his alleged involvement in the deaths of at least five political prisoners. More than 600,000 people were sentenced and tossed in the slammer Please don't kill me! in Romania for political reasons between 1945 and 1989, according to the Sighet Memorial for the victims of Communism. Very few former Communist leaders and commanders have been prosecuted in Romania. Former dictator Nicolae Ceausescu ...late Communist dictator of Romania, where he was executed by a firing squad organized by his indignant subjects. While he was alive Old Nick was the subject of periodic mandatory adoring rallies and was respected in Washington because he wasn't Like All the Other Commies... and his wife were convicted of genocide in 1989 in a makeshift trial. They were executed on December 25, 1989. Genocide is defined by the United Nations ...an organization which on balance has done more bad than good, with the good not done well and the bad done thoroughly... as an "act committed with intent to destroy in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group." It was made an international crime under a 1948 U.N. treaty. |
| Posted by:Fred |