BUCHAREST : Terror on Trial
The trial of Gen. Iulian Vlad, former chief of the hated Securitate secret police force that kept dictator Nicolae Ceausescu in power and the Romanian people in terror, resumes next Monday.
Vlad is accused of complicity in genocide for his role in the bloody repression of anti-government riots last December. He testified in court last month that the Securitate was “a necessary evil” and justified the brutal crackdown on demonstrators in the city of Timisoara with charges that foreign instigators were behind the unrest.
Ceausescu’s son and brother have already been convicted on genocide charges, which carry a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
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