by Tony Iozzo
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe
Bucharest, ROMANIA – Romanian prosecutors charged the former commander of a Communist-era prison with genocide on Tuesday.
Alexandru Visinescu was formally presented with the charges before prosecutors at a hearing on Tuesday. He declined to comment as he was led to a taxi after the hearing. He has said he was only following orders delegated to him.
Visinescu ran the Ramnicu Sarat prison where the pre-Communist elite and intellectuals were incarcerated between 1956 and 1963.
Prosecutors have stated that under Visinescu’s command, prisoners were subjected to starvation, beatings, a lack of medical treatment and exposure to cold. Visinescu could face life in prison if convicted.
Visinescu, 87, is the first Romanian to be charged with genocide since 1989. Former leader Nicolae Ceausescu was the last, and was tried and executed in 1989.
Approximately 500,000 Romanian priests, teachers, peasants, doctors and diplomats were condemned as political prisoners in the 1950s as the Communist government sought to crush any dissent and gain greater autonomy. Nearly one-fifth of those imprisoned died due to the inhuman conditions, historians have stated.
Back in July, the institute investigating communist crimes wrote to the general prosecutors calling for Visinescu to be prosecuted for six deaths. The institute plans to forward roughly 35 files about former commanders to prosecutors.
In August, Visinescu lunged several times at journalists who were seeking reaction to the accusations against him. Since then, there has been widespread public debate regarding the Communist era, with many people advocating moves to punish former prison commanders.
President Traian Basescu and Prime Minister Victor Ponta have both stated that former prison commanders should face justice for crimes they committed during the Communist era.
Visinescu also was reportedly a member of the execution squad that killed Ion Mihalache, the founder and leader of the Agrarian Party in Romania. After the execution, Visinescu became the commander of a women’s penitentiary, where he was a notorious torturer, before eventually becoming the commander of Ramnicu Sarat.
Former inmate Ion-Ovidiu Borcea recalls witnessing Visinescu commit chronic torture, “The officer and the commander in chief continuously beat him, got him sick and did not offer him medical care. They would enter his cell and throw a bucket of cold water on him in the middle of winter. [Mihalache] would yell ‘This is Ion Mihalache, They’re killing me!’. This crime cannot be forgotten.”
For more information, please see:
Fox News – Romanian Communist-Era Prison Guard Charged With Genocide – 3 September 2013
Romania-Insider – Romanian Commander of Communist-Era Prison Charged With Genocide – 3 September 2013
The Telegraph – Romanian Communist-Era Prison Chief Charged With Genocide – 3 September 2013
The Tribune – Ex Prison Guard of Communist Prison is Charged With Genocide – 3 September 2013
