Loyalists to Ceausescu Go on Trial : Romania: Security forces accused of resisting revolt face maximum sentences of life in prison.

The first captured security men loyal to ousted President Nicolae Ceausescu went before military tribunals today, accused of resisting the popular revolt that toppled and executed the despised dictator.

The first tribunal opened in the south Transylvanian city of Sibiu, ruled until Dec. 22 by Ceausescu’s son Nicu.

“A group of terrorists who fought against the people in the army” faced the military court, a spokesman for the revolutionary government said.

Aurel Dragos Munteanu, the spokesman and director of television, told a news conference that he did not know how many security men will face trial.

He gave no details of the exact charges in Sibiu or other centers of heavy fighting, such as Bucharest and the western city of Timisoara, where the revolution began Dec. 17 when security forces massacred anti-government protesters. Thousands of people were killed in the uprising.

The accused have no right of appeal, said Munteanu, but media--foreign and domestic--will have access to the tribunals.

The National Salvation Front, which has been running the country since Ceausescu was ousted Dec. 22, organized the secret military tribunal that ordered the Christmas Day execution of the president and his wife, Elena.

It has since abolished the death sentence so the captured men of crack security units who battled the army after Ceausescu was ousted face a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Munteanu said those still under investigation include Nicu Ceausescu and Gen. Iulian Vlad, the former head of Ceausescu’s dreaded Securitate security police, which Romania’s new leaders have ordered disbanded.

Asked about weekend statements from President Ion Iliescu and Vice President Dumitru Mazilu that free elections promised for April could be postponed, Munteanu said he knew of no such postponement as yet.

The half-dozen political parties formed or reborn in the two short weeks since Ceausescu was executed have charged that the National Salvation Front would have an unfair advantage in any early poll because of its control of media and the government.

They have urged postponement of the balloting so they have more time to organize campaigns.

Some political groups have accused Romanian television of boycotting their gatherings while giving ample coverage to the National Salvation Front.