Gelu Voican Voiculescu and Petre Roman face criminal charges in the 1990 Mineriad case, after President Klaus Iohannis signed the Military Prosecutor’s request to this effect.
Iohannis transmitted on Tuesday the approved requests for criminal prosecution against:
- Petre Roman, former Prime Minister from December 26, 1989, to September 26, 1991
- Gelu Voican Voiculescu, former Deputy Prime Minister from December 28, 1989, to June 28, 1990.
Both are being investigated for crimes against humanity.
As former ministers, the president's approval was needed to initiate criminal proceedings.
34 years after the miners called to Bucharest beat the peaceful protesters in University Square, there are no convicted culprits.
From June 13 to June 15, 1990, at least four people were killed by miners and over 1,000 were injured, according to official data.
The Mineriad case was only sent to court in 2017. Then, former president Ion Iliescu, Petre Roman, Gelu Voican Voiculescu, the former director of the Romanian Information Service, Virgil Măgureanu, and the leader of the miners Miron Cozma were indicted.
However, the High Court decided in December 2020 to return the case to the Military Prosecutor and to completely redo the investigation. Subsequently, the supreme court confirmed in 2021 the reopening of the criminal investigation against Ion Iliescu.