Ceausescu's Trial Transcript

Selections from the Transcript of the closed trial of Nicolae and Elena Ceauşescu  (1989) 

Obtained from wikisource.org

< http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Transcript_of_the_closed_trial_of_Nicolae_and_Elena_Ceau%C5%9Fescu>

The following is a transcript of the closed trial of Romanian Dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu and his wife, Elena, as shown on Romanian and Austrian television.

Military base Târgovişte - December 25th 1989

Prosecutor Gica POPA

The English translation is by the U.S. government's Foreign Broadcast Information Service. Sections in italic type are from Austrian television comentary:

CEAUSESCU REFUSES TO COOPERATE WITH THE ROMANIAN PEOPLE

NICOLAE CEAUŞESCU: I only recognize the Grand National Assembly. I will only speak in front of it.

PROSECUTOR: In the same way he refused to hold a dialogue with the people, now he also refuses to speak with us. He always claimed to act and speak on behalf of the people, to be a beloved son of the people, but he only tyrannized the people all the time....

...

PROSECUTOR: Did you hear the charges? Have you understood them?

NICOLAE CEAUŞESCU: I do not answer, I will only answer questions before the Grand National Assembly. I do not recognize this court. The charges are incorrect, and I will not answer a single question here.

PROSECUTOR: Note - He does not recognize the points mentioned in the bill of indictment.

CEAUSESCU REACTS TO QUESTIONS ABOUT THE ORIGINAL SHOTS

NICOLAE CEAUŞESCU: I will not answer. I will not answer any question. Not a single shot was fired in Palace Square. Not a single shot. No one was shot.

PROSECUTOR: By now, there have been 34 casualties.

Elena says: Look, and that they are calling genocide.

PROSECUTOR: In all district capitals, which you grandly called municipalities, there is shooting going on. The people were slaves. The entire intelligentsia of the country ran away. No one wanted to do anything for you anymore.

THE CEAUSESCUS REACT TO THE CHARGES OF LIVING LIKE ROYALTY

NICOLAE CEAUŞESCU: As a citizen, as a simple citizen, I tell you the following: At no point was there such an upswing, so much construction, so much consolidation in the Romanian provinces. I guaranteed that every village has its schools, hospitals and doctors. I have done everything to create a decent and rich life for the people in the country, like in no other country in the world.

PROSECUTOR: We have always spoken of equality. We are all equal. Everybody should be paid according to his performance. Now we finally saw your villa on television, the golden plates from which you ate, the foodstuffs that you had imported, the luxurious celebrations, pictures from your luxurious celebrations.

ELENA CEAUŞESCU: Incredible. We live in a normal apartment, just like every other citizen. We have ensured an apartment for every citizen through corresponding laws.

PROSECUTOR: You had palaces.

NICOLAE CEAUŞESCU: No, we had no palaces. The palaces belong to the people.

The prosecutor agrees, but stresses that they lived in them while the people suffered.

PROSECUTOR: Children cannot even buy plain candy, and you are living in the palaces of the people.

NICOLAE CEAUŞESCU: Is it possible that we are facing such charges?

THE PROSECUTION QUESTIONS ELENA ABOUT GENOCIDE

The prosecutor turns to Elena: You have always been wiser and more ready to talk, a scientist. You were the most important aide, the number two in the cabinet, in the government.

PROSECUTOR: Did you know about the genocide in Timisoara?

ELENA CEAUŞESCU: What genocide? By the way, I will not answer any more questions.

PROSECUTOR: Did you know about the genocide or did you, as a chemist, only deal with polymers? You, as a scientist, did you know about it?

Here Nicolae Ceauşescu steps in and defends her.

NICOLAE CEAUŞESCU: Her scientific papers were published abroad!

PROSECUTOR: And who wrote the papers for you, Elena?

ELENA CEAUŞESCU: Such impudence!...You cannot talk to me in such a way!

...

PROSECUTOR: Who gave the order to shoot? Answer this question!

ELENA CEAUŞESCU: I will not answer. I told you right at the beginning that I will not answer a single question.

NICOLAE CEAUŞESCU: You as officers should know that the government cannot give the order to shoot. But those who shot at the young people were the security men, the terrorists.

ELENA CEAUŞESCU: The terrorists are from Securitate.

PROSECUTOR: The terrorists are from Securitate?

ELENA CEAUŞESCU: Yes.

PROSECUTION ASKS IF THE CEAUSESCUS HAVE MENTAL ILLNESSES

PROSECUTOR: Please, ask Nicolae and Elena Ceauşescu whether they have ever had a mental illness.

NICOLAE CEAUŞESCU: What? What should he ask us?

PROSECUTOR: Whether you have ever had a mental illness.

NICOLAE CEAUŞESCU: What an obscene provocation.

PROSECUTOR: This would serve your defense. If you had had a mental illness and admitted this, you would not be responsible for your acts.

ELENA: How can one tell us something like this? How can one say something like this?

NICOLAE CEAUŞESCU: I do not recognize this court.

THE “DEFENSE” FOR THE CEAUSESCUS

COUNSEL FOR THE DEFENSE: Even though he — like her — committed insane acts, we want to defend them. We want a legal trial. Only a president who is still confirmed in his position can demand to speak at the Grand National Assembly. If he no longer has a certain function, he cannot demand anything at all. Then he is treated like a normal citizen. Since the old government has been dissolved and Ceauşescu has lost his functions, he no longer has the right to be treated as the president. Please make a note that here it has been stated that all legal regulations have been observed, that this is a legal trial. Therefore, it is a mistake for the two accused to refuse to cooperate with us. This is a legal trial, and I honor them by defending them.

At the beginning, Ceauşescu claimed that it is a provocation to be asked whether he was sick. He refused to undergo a psychiatric examination. However, there is a difference between real sickness that must be treated and mental insanity which leads to corresponding actions, but which is denied by the person in question. You have acted in a very irresponsible manner; you led the country to the verge of ruin and you will be convicted on the basis of the points contained in the bill of indictment. You are guilty of these offenses even if you do not want to admit it. Despite this, I ask the court to make a decision which we will be able to justify later as well. We must not allow the slightest impression of illegality to emerge. Elena and Nicolae Ceauşescu should be punished in a really legal trial.

The two defendants should also know that they are entitled to a counsel for defense, even if they reject this. It should be stated once and for all that this military court is absolutely legal and that the former positions of the two Ceauşescus are no longer valid. However, they will be indicted, and a sentence will be passed on the basis of the new legal system. They are not only accused of offenses committed during the past few days, but of offenses committed during the past 25 years. We have sufficient data on this period. I ask the court, as the plaintiff, to take note that proof has been furnished for all these points, that the two have committed the offenses mentioned. Finally, I would like to refer once more to the genocide, the numerous killings carried out during the past few days. Elena and Nicolae Ceauşescu must be held fully responsible for this. I now ask the court to pass a verdict on the basis of the law, because everybody must receive due punishment for the offenses he has committed.

THE VERDICT

The final speech of the prosecutor follows:

PROSECUTOR: It is very difficult for us to act, to pass a verdict on people who even now do not want to admit to the criminal offenses that they have committed during 25 years and admit to the genocide, not only in Timisoara and Bucharest, but primarily also to the criminal offenses committed during the past 25 years. This demonstrates their lack of understanding. They not only deprived the people of heating, electricity and foodstuffs, they also tyrannized the soul of the Romanian people. They not only killed children, young people and adults in Timisoara and Bucharest; they allowed Securitate members to wear military uniforms to create the impression among the people that the army is against them. They wanted to separate the people from the army. They used to fetch people from orphans' homes or from abroad whom they trained in special institutions to become murderers of their own people. You were so impertinent as to cut off oxygen lines in hospitals and to shoot people in their hospital beds. The Securitate had hidden food reserves on which Bucharest could have survived for months, the whole of Bucharest.

Whom are they talking about, Elena asks.

PROSECUTOR: So far, they have always claimed that we have built this country, we have paid our debts, but with this they bled the country to death and have hoarded enough money to ensure their escape. You need not admit your mistakes, mister. In 1947, we assumed power, but under completely different circumstances. In 1947, King Michael showed more dignity than you. And you might perhaps have achieved the understanding of the Romanian people if you had now admitted your guilt. You should have stayed in Iran where you had flown to.

In response, the two laugh, and she says: We do not stay abroad. This is our home.

PROSECUTOR: Esteemed Mr. Chairman, I have been one of those who, as a lawyer, would have liked to oppose the death sentence, because it is inhuman. But we are not talking about people. I would not call for the death sentence, but it would be incomprehensible for the Romanian people to have to go on suffering this great misery and not to have it ended by sentencing the two Ceauşescus to death. The crimes against the people grew year by year. They were only busy enslaving the people and building up an apparatus of power. They were not really interested in the people.

[Picture is cut off]

After an outage of transmission of Romanian television, the speaker announces the verdict in the trial of Elena and Nicolae Ceauşescu is death sentence. All their property will be impounded.