trial and execution of Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu

On 22 December 1989, during the Romanian Revolution, Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu left the Central Committee building in Bucharest by helicopter towards Snagov, from where they left soon afterwards towards Pitești.Burakovski, p. 272 Vasile Maluțan, the helicopter pilot, claimed to be in danger from anti-aircraft fire, so he landed on the Bucharest–Târgoviște road, near Găești. They stopped a car driven by a Nicolae Decă, who took them to Văcărești, after which he informed the local authorities that the Ceaușescus were going toward Târgoviște. The Ceaușescus took another car and told its driver, Nicolae Petrișor, to drive them to Târgoviște. During the trip, the Ceaușescus heard news of the revolution on the car radio (by then the revolutionaries had taken control of the state media), causing Ceaușescu to angrily denounce the revolution as a coup d'état. Petrișor took the couple to an agricultural centre near Târgoviște, where they were locked in an office and later arrested by soldiers from a local army garrison.Burakovski, p. 273{{cite news |last=Demian |first=Sinziana |title=In Romania, Ceaușescu's death haunts Christmas |url=https://theworld.org/dispatch/europe/091224/romania-nicolae-elena-ceausescu |url-status=live |access-date=30 March 2013 |newspaper=GlobalPost |date=25 December 2009 |location=Cluj Napoca|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220924034343/https://theworld.org/dispatch/europe/091224/romania-nicolae-elena-ceausescu |archive-date=24 September 2022 }}

As the new authorities heard the news of their arrest from General Andrei Kemenici, the commander of the army unit, they began to discuss what to do with the Ceaușescus. Victor Stănculescu, who was Ceaușescu's last defence minister before going over to the revolution, wanted a quick execution, as did Gelu Voican Voiculescu. Ion Iliescu, Romania's provisional president, supported holding a trial first.{{cite news |title=Ceausescu execution 'avoided mob lynching' |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8430213.stm |access-date=30 March 2013 |work=BBC News |date=25 December 2009 }}

During the evening of 24 December 1989, Stănculescu sent the secret code "recourse to the method" to Kemenici, referring to the execution of the Ceaușescus. A ten-member tribunal was formed to try the case.{{cite news |title=Ceausescu Wept as He Faced Firing Squad, Footage Shows |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/04/23/world/evolution-in-europe-ceausescu-wept-as-he-faced-firing-squad-footage-shows.html |access-date=30 March 2013 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=23 April 1990 |agency=Associated Press}} The members of the panel were all military judges.{{cite book |last=Kideckel |first=David A. |title=Death of The Father: An Anthropology of The End in Political Authority |year=2004 |publisher=Berghahn Books |isbn=978-0-85745-715-8 |page=123 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A3kJQWTZh7AC&pg=PR6 |editor-first=John |editor-last=Borneman |access-date=31 March 2013 |chapter=The Undead:Nicolae Ceaușescu and paternalist politics in Romanian society and culture }}

The Independent characterized the trial as "what can best be described as an egregiously conducted summary trial, at worst a kangaroo court".{{cite web |first=Mick |last=O'Hare |title='Shameful but necessary': How the Romanian rulers who starved their people met their end |website=The Independent |date=25 December 2019 |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/independentpremium/long-reads/ceausescu-romania-bucharest-communism-politics-history-a9234806.html |access-date=23 March 2021}}

The charges were published in Monitorul Oficial the day after the execution:Monitorul Oficial, Anul I, Nr. 3, 26 December 1989

• Genocide – over 60,000 victims
• Subversion of state power by organising armed actions against the people and state power.
• Offence of destruction of public property by destroying and damaging buildings, explosions in cities, etc.
• Undermining the national economy.
• Trying to flee the country using over $1 billion deposited in foreign banks.

The morning of the trial, prominent lawyer Nicu Teodorescu was having Christmas breakfast with his family when he was telephoned by an aide to Iliescu, and asked by the National Salvation Front to be the Ceaușescus' defence counsel. He replied that it would be "an interesting challenge".{{cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-01-24-mn-769-story.html |url-status=live |title=Ceausescus Expected to Be Rescued, Lawyer Says |agency=United Press International |date=24 January 1990 |work=Los Angeles Times |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308090536/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-01-24-mn-769-story.html |access-date=17 January 2024 |archive-date=8 March 2021 }} Teodorescu met the couple for the first time in the Târgoviște "court room", when he was given ten minutes to confer with his clients. With so little time to prepare any defence, he tried to explain to them that their best hope of avoiding the death sentence was to plead insanity. The Ceaușescus brushed off the idea; according to Teodorescu, "When I suggested it, Elena in particular said it was an outrageous set-up. They felt deeply insulted...They rejected my help after that."

{{Infobox court case

|name = {{noitalics|Trial of Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu}}

|court = Exceptional Military Tribunal, a drumhead court-martial created at the request of a newly formed group called the National Salvation Front

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|date decided = 25 December 1989

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Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu were convicted of all charges and condemned to death

|charge=The main charge was genocide.

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|judges = Victor Stănculescu

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At 5:30 a.m. on 25 December, the two were taken by an armoured personnel carrier to the garrison command office where the trial would take place. After the medical visits, they were brought into the improvised courtroom.{{cite web |url=https://artsandculture.google.com/story/HQVhRMp6MAUA8A?hl=en |title=Trial and Execution |work=Google Arts & Culture |author=TVR|access-date=15 December 2023}} The trial of Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu was very brief, lasting approximately one hour.{{cite web |title=Nicolae Ceausescu |website=Biography |date=28 April 2017 |url=https://www.biography.com/political-figure/nicolae-ceausescu |access-date=17 October 2019}}{{cite web|url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/alan-elsner/trial-and-execution-the-d_b_401497.html |title=Trial and Execution: The Dramatic Deaths of Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu |first=Alan |last=Elsner |website=HuffPost |date=22 July 2010}}{{cite web |first=Soraya |last=Sarhaddi Nelson |title=25 Years After Death, A Dictator Still Casts A Shadow in Romania |publisher=NPR |date=24 December 2014 |url=https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2014/12/24/369593135/25-years-after-death-a-dictator-still-casts-a-shadow-in-romania |access-date=17 October 2019}} Ceaușescu defended himself by arguing that the tribunal was against the 1965 Constitution of Romania and that only the Great National Assembly had the power to remove him. He argued that it was a coup d'état organized by the Soviets.

Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu were convicted of all charges and condemned to death in what amounted to a show trial. At one point, their forcibly assigned lawyers abandoned their clients' defence and joined with the prosecutor, accusing them of capital crimes instead of defending them.:s:ro:Stenograma procesului Ceaușescu, translated at :s:Transcript of the closed trial of Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu.{{primary source inline|date=May 2024}} No offer of proof was made for the Ceaușescus' alleged crimes. They were tried based on references, solely by offence-name or hearsay, to criminal acts they had committed in the opinion of prosecutors, or as alleged in press reports.{{clarify|date=January 2020}} Various irregularities presented themselves, or became apparent after the trial:{{cite web |first=Grigore |last=Cartianu |title=Nicolae si Elena Ceausescu: 'Impreuna am luptat, sa murim impreuna!' |trans-title=Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu: 'Together we fought, let us die together!' |website=adevarul.ro |date=19 December 2009 |url=https://adevarul.ro/news/societate/nicolae-elena-ceausescu-Impreuna-luptat-murim-impreuna-1_50ad82ad7c42d5a663967ee4/index.html |language=ro |access-date=17 October 2019}}

• The trial was held immediately, without a prior criminal investigation.
• The suspects could not choose their own lawyers.
• The court did not attempt to find and prove the truth. There was no file of evidence presented to the court.{{cite web |last=Antoniu |first=Gabriela |title=Interviu integral – "Marius Tucă Show". Gen. C-tin Lucescu, despre procesul Ceauşeştilor: Nu a existat niciun fel de dosar. Nu am ştiut nici eu, nici procurorul |trans-title=Full interview – "Marius Tucă Show". Gen. C-tin Lucescu, about the Ceaucescu trial: There was no file. Neither I nor the prosecutor knew |website=Mediafax.ro |date=27 November 2019 |url=https://www.mediafax.ro/marius-tuca-show/interviu-integral-marius-tuca-show-gen-c-tin-lucescu-despre-procesul-ceausestilor-nu-a-existat-niciun-fel-de-dosar-nu-am-stiut-nici-eu-nici-procurorul-18621319 |language=ro |access-date=28 November 2019}}
• An accusation of genocide was never proven, although four top Ceaușescu aides later admitted complicity in genocide in 1990. Pro TV stated that there were 860 people killed after 22 December 1989 (i.e. when the dictatorial couple was no longer in charge).{{youTube|J2aRiXor6Nk|Știrile PRO TV - 21 februarie 2020}} 0:32:39{{Cite web |url=https://stirileprotv.ro/stiri/actualitate/schimbare-in-dosarul-revolutiei-doua-ministere-ar-putea-fi-obligate-sa-acorde-despagubiri.html |lang=ro |title=Schimbare în Dosarul Revoluției. Două ministere ar putea fi obligate să acorde despăgubiri |trans-title=Change in the Revolution File. Two ministries could be forced to pay compensation |website=Stirileprotv.ro|date=12 June 2020}} Another source gives the figure of 306 people killed 17–22 December 1989.Valentin Marin. Martirii Revoluției în date statistice Editura Institului Revoluției Române, Bucharest, 2010, p. 22
• The Ceaușescus were accused of having $1 billion in foreign bank accounts. No such accounts have ever been found.
• The judges' verdict allowed for appealing to a higher court. The Ceaușescus were executed a few minutes after the verdict, rendering that provision moot.{{cite web |trans-title=Trials, famous cases- The Ceausescu trial. Aspects of judicial theory and practice. The most controversial Romanian trial |title=Procese, cazuri celebre- Procesul sotilor Ceausescu. Aspecte de teorie si practica judiciara. Cel mai controversat proces romanesc |website=Avocat Marian Roșca |date=20 October 2012 |url=http://www.avoconsult.ro/procese-cazuri-celebre-procesul-sotilor-ceausescu-aspecte-de-teorie-si-practica-judiciara-cel-mai-controversat-proces-romanesc.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121020020554/http://www.avoconsult.ro/procese-cazuri-celebre-procesul-sotilor-ceausescu-aspecte-de-teorie-si-practica-judiciara-cel-mai-controversat-proces-romanesc.html |archive-date=20 October 2012 |url-status=dead |language=ro |access-date=17 October 2019}}
• The new authorities argued the execution of the Ceaușescus was necessary to stop terrorists from attacking the new political order. No terrorists or terrorist cells were found to have been active in Romania.{{cite web |author=R.M. |date=21 December 2010 |url=https://revistapresei.hotnews.ro/stiri-radio_tv-8145193-dan-voinea-nu-existat-teroristi-decembrie-39-89-sotii-ceausescu-fost-ucisi-pentru-salva-administratia-comunista-care-dureaza-azi.htm |title=Dan Voinea: Nu au existat teroristi in decembrie '89. Sotii Ceausescu au fost ucisi pentru a salva administratia comunista, care dureaza si azi |trans-title=Dan Voinea: There were no terrorists in December '89. The Ceausescu's were killed to save the communist administration, which continues today |work=Hotnews.ro |lang=ro }} A newer insight of prosecution of "crimes against humanity" claims that the new regime orchestrated "a psychosis of terrorism" through diversionary actions.{{cite web |first=Valentin |last=Vioreanu |title=Lovitură cumplită pentru Ion Iliescu! Ce au decis judecătorii |website=Capital |date=9 October 2019 |url=https://www.capital.ro/breaking-news-lovitura-cumplita-pentru-ion-iliescu-ce-au-decis-judecatorii.html |trans-title=A terrible blow for Ion Iliescu! What the judges decided |language=ro |access-date=17 October 2019}}

The Ceaușescus were executed at 2:50 p.m. local time at Military Unit UM 01417 from Târgoviște on 25 December 1989. The execution was carried out by a firing squad consisting of eight paratroop regiment soldiers brought in by two helicopters from the Boteni base: Captain Ionel Boeru, Sergeant-Major Georghin Octavian and Dorin-Marian Cîrlan, and five other non-commissioned officers who were selected from 20 volunteers.{{cite news |title=120 bullets found in Ceausescus |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210503114317/https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=gAghAAAAIBAJ&pg=2040,4327503 |archive-date=3 May 2021 |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=gAghAAAAIBAJ&pg=2040,4327503 |url-status=live |access-date=30 March 2013 |newspaper=The Day |date=23 January 1990}} Before the execution, Nicolae Ceaușescu declared, "We could have been shot without having this masquerade!" The Ceaușescus' hands were tied by four soldiers before the execution.{{cite news |last=Elsner |first=Alan |title=Trial and Execution: The Dramatic Deaths of Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu |url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trial-and-execution-the-d_b_401497 |access-date=30 March 2013 |newspaper=Huffington Post|date=23 December 2009}} Simon Sebag Montefiore wrote that Elena Ceaușescu screamed, "You sons of bitches!" as she was led outside and lined up against the wall, while Nicolae Ceaușescu began singing a fragment of "The Internationale" before the soldiers opened fire.{{cite book |last=Sebag Montefiore |first=Simon |author-link=Simon Sebag Montefiore |title=101 Villains from Vlad the Impaler to Adolf Hitler: History's Monsters |publisher=Metro Books |year=2008 |isbn=978-1-4351-0937-7 |page=274}}

The firing squad began shooting as soon as the two were positioned against a wall. The execution happened too quickly for the television crew assigned to the trial and death sentence to videotape it in full; only the last round of shots was filmed. In 2014, retired Captain Boeru told a reporter for The Guardian newspaper that he believes that the shots he fired from his rifle were solely responsible for the deaths of both of the Ceaușescus, because, of the three soldiers in the firing squad, he was the only one who remembered to switch his assault rifle to fire fully automatic, and at least one member of the group hesitated to shoot for several seconds.{{cite news |last=Graham-Harrison |first=Emma |title='I'm still nervous,' says soldier who shot Nicolae Ceausescu |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/07/nicolae-ceausescu-execution-anniversary-romania |access-date=13 June 2019 |newspaper=The Guardian |date=6 December 2014}} In 1990, a member of the National Salvation Front reported that 120 bullets were found in the couple's bodies.

In 1989, Prime Minister Petre Roman told French television that the execution was carried out quickly due to rumours that loyalists would attempt to rescue the couple.{{cite news|title=Television shows last hours of the 'anti-Christ'|url=https://www.theguardian.com/century/1980-1989/Story/0,6051,110504,00.html |access-date=30 March 2013|newspaper=The Guardian|date=27 December 1989}}

After the execution, the bodies were covered with canvas.{{Cite news |last=Matus |first=Victor |date=2005-12-01 |title=On the Disposal of Dictators |url=https://www.hoover.org/research/disposal-dictators |access-date=2022-12-20 |website=Hoover Institution |language=en}} The Ceaușescus' corpses were taken to Bucharest and buried in Ghencea Cemetery on 30 December 1989.{{Cite book |last=Stan |first=Lavinia |url=https://search.worldcat.org/title/872522689 |title=Transitional Justice in Post-Communist Romania: The Politics of Memory |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2013 |isbn=978-1-107-42925-3 |location=Cambridge, UK |pages=239 |language=en |oclc=872522689}}

The bodies were exhumed for identification and reburied in 2010.{{cite web |title=Ex-dictator Ceausescu is reburied |work=BBC News |date=10 December 2010 |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-11965940 |access-date=17 October 2019}} Groups of Ceaușescu's supporters visit to place flowers on the grave, with large numbers of pensioners gathering on 26 January, Nicolae's birthday.{{cite web |title=Nicolae Ceausescu's Grave – Sightseeing |website=Bucharest |date=17 October 2019 |url=https://www.inyourpocket.com/bucharest/nicolae-ceausescus-grave_14779v |access-date=17 October 2019}}

The hasty trial and the images of the dead Ceaușescus were videotaped and the footage promptly released in numerous Western countries two days after the execution.{{cite news |title=On this day |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/25/newsid_2542000/2542623.stm |access-date=30 March 2013 |work=BBC News }} Later that day, it was also shown on Romanian television.

In 2009 Valentin Ceaușescu, elder son of the Ceaușescus, argued that the revolutionary forces should have killed his parents when they had arrested them on 22 December since they did not need any trial.{{cite news |title=Ceausescu fooled by aides, son says |url=https://www.kyivpost.com/post/7890 |url-status=live |agency=Associated Press |access-date=30 March 2013 |newspaper=Kyiv Post |date=24 December 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230111031310/https://www.kyivpost.com/post/7890 |archive-date=11 January 2023 }} After making vague comments about the incident, Ion Iliescu stated that it was "quite shameful, but necessary". In a similar vein, Stănculescu told the BBC in 2009 that the trial was "not just, but it was necessary" because the alternative would have been seeing Nicolae lynched on the streets of Bucharest.

Several countries criticized the new rulers of Romania after the execution due to lack of public trial. The United States government was the most prominent critic of the trial, stating: "We regret the trial did not take place in an open and public fashion."

On 1 March 1990, Colonel Gică Popa, who had presided over the trial and been promoted to general, was found dead in his office. His death was ruled a suicide.{{cite web |title=Morți NEELUCIDATE care pătează imaginea justiției din România |website=romaniatv.net |date=25 May 2017 |url=https://www.romaniatv.net/morti-misterioase-la-cel-mai-inalt-nivel-cine-blocheaza-anchetele_358056.html |trans-title=Unresolved deaths tarnishing the image of justice in Romania |language=ro |access-date=3 May 2021 }} The Ceaușescus were the last people to be executed in Romania before the abolition of capital punishment on 7 January 1990.{{cite web |date=14 October 2018 |title=How many countries still have the death penalty? |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-45835584 |access-date=17 October 2019 |work=BBC News}}

In December 2018, Iliescu, former Deputy Prime Minister Gelu Voican Voiculescu, former Romanian Air Force chief Iosif Rus, and former National Salvation Front council member Emil Dumitrescu were indicted by Romanian military prosecutors for crimes against humanity for the deaths that occurred during the Romanian Revolution, most of which took place after Ceaușescu was overthrown. The indictment also made reference to the conviction and execution of the Ceaușescus "after a mockery of a trial".{{cite news |title=Romanian Ex-President Iliescu Indicted For 'Crimes Against Humanity' |website=Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty |date=21 December 2018 |url=https://www.rferl.org/a/romanian-ex-president-iliescu-indicted-for-crimes-against-humanity-/29669414.html |access-date=17 October 2019}} The investigation that led to the indictments had previously been closed in 2009, but was re-opened in 2016 as the result of a trial at the European Court of Human Rights.{{cite news |last=Luca |first=Ana Maria |title=Romania Indicts Former Officials for Usurping 1989 Revolution |url=https://balkaninsight.com/2019/04/08/romania-indicts-former-officials-for-usurping-1989-revolution/ |access-date=16 April 2019 |work=Balkan Insight |date=8 April 2019}}

Swiss theatre director Milo Rau and his International Institute of Political Murder (IIPM) wrote and produced the stage production The Last Days of the Ceausescus in 2009. The production was a re-enactment of the trial, and IIPM was able to obtain testimonies from people directly involved in the Romanian revolution (including dissidents, politicians, revolutionaries and ordinary Romanians) and the trial of the Ceaușescus (including the general who betrayed them, the officer who captured them, and the soldier who shot them).{{cite web |date=18 December 2009 |title=The Last Days of the Ceausescus |url=https://international-institute.de/en/the-last-days-of-the-ceausescus/ |access-date=18 March 2024 |website=International Institute of Political Murder}}

A few days before the premiere at the Odeon Theatre in Bucharest in 2010, Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu's son-in-law Mircea Oprean (the widower of Zoia, who died in 2006), forced his way into rehearsals, saying that he and his brother-in-law Valentin Ceaușescu had registered the name "Ceaușescu" as a trademark in 2008, and it could not be used in the title. A lawsuit followed, and the director was forced to cancel the show after two performances.{{citation|title=Rumänien: Kafka grüßt die Karpaten|date=13 July 2010|url=http://www.zeit.de/2010/28/Kolumne-Rumaenien|issue=28|periodical=Die Zeit|language=German|first=Christian |last=Schmidt-Häuer| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100715052457/http://www.zeit.de/2010/28/Kolumne-Rumaenien| archive-date=15 July 2010| url-status=live}}

The show then premiered at Hebbel am Ufer (HAU) in Berlin, before touring Switzerland at the Schlachthaus Theater in Bern, Theaterhaus Gessnerallee in Zurich, and Südpol in Lucerne. It was also later produced at the Festival d'Avignon in France,{{cite web | title=The Last Days of the Ceaușescus by Milo Rau | website=Ashkal Alwan | url=https://www.ashkalalwan.org/program.php?category=4&id=97 | language=la | access-date=19 March 2024}} and a documentary film (Die letzten Tage der Ceausescus) was made about it.{{imdb title|3894634|Die letzten Tage der Ceausescus}}{{cite web | title=The Last Days Of The Ceausescus | website=dafilms.com | date=10 October 2022 | url=https://dafilms.com/film/14869-the-last-days-of-the-ceausescus | access-date=19 March 2024}}{{cite web |last=Rau |first=Milo |author-link=Milo Rau |date=30 June 2023 |title=Milo Rau: "Let's continue, but in another way" |url=https://capitalcultural.ro/en/milo-rau-lets-continue-but-in-another-way/ |access-date=19 March 2024 |website=Capital Cultural |interviewer-last=Brînză |interviewer-first=Teia}}

{{reflist}}

• {{cite book |first=Adam |last=Burakovski |lang=ro |trans-title=Nicolae Ceausescu's dictatorship, 1965–1989 – Genius of the Carpathians |title=Dictatura lui Nicolae Ceaușescu, 1965–1989 – Geniul Carpaților |year=2011 |publisher=Polirom |isbn=978-973-46-1963-4}}

• {{wikisource-inline|Transcript of the closed trial of Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu}}
• [https://archive.org/details/rec-0001_202010 Procesul Ceaușeștilor - caseta originală]

{{Cold War|state=collapsed}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Trial of Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu}}

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