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Romanian Court Issues First Decision In Securitate Collaboration Case

The Bucharest Court wrote the first explanation for a sentence in a case involving collaboration with the communist political police, the Securitate. The case involved Dan Trancota, leader of the National Initiative Party.
Romanian Court Issues First Decision In Securitate Collaboration Case
05 dec. 2008, 20:35, English

The court said even though he supplied information, he did not violate the rights of the targets, and added human rights did not even exist under the communist regime.

The Bucharest Court denied the action initiated by the National Council for the Study of Securitate Archives (CNSAS), which initially asked the court to acknowledge the “Securitate collaborator” status of Dan Trancota.
 
According to CNSAS, Trancota signed an agreement on July 17, 1979 with the Mehedinti county chapter of the Securitate. The information notes signed by Dan Trancota, under the alias "Dobrin," referred to professors, two doctors and a family that was involved in a religious cult.
 
"Indeed the defendant’s attitude of accepting collaboration with such an authority, as well as the activities unfolded by the defendant are contemptible (…) But one question needs to be asked, a rhetorical one of course, if in those times there was acknowledgement of such human rights or common sense norms. The answer is known given the definition of a dictatorship and a totalitarian state such as Romania was between 1945 and 1989," the judge said.
 
In addition, the judge analyzed Trancota’s guilt from a political and social perspective with respect for the nature of the communist regime.
 
"In a society where one lives in constant fear of one’s fellow citizen, a fear induced by the authorities of the state, we can only speak of the dictator’s will and the satisfaction of his needs and the group of interests he was supporting. In such a society, the fact that the defendant supplied information (…) is not worthy of bringing the Securitate collaborator label on the defendant," the judge added.
 
At the same time, the magistrate said that in order to dub someone a Scuritate collaborator, that someone needs to do more than sign an agreement. The information supplied needs to lead to a constriction of basic human rights and liberties. The judge also said the information supplied by Trancota were not defamatory in nature, they were not tendentious and they did not endanger the lives or health of the people targeted.
 
Dan Trancota was prefect of Mehedinti county between 2000 and 2004, as member of the Social Democratic Party, and he is currently the leader of the Mehedinti chapter of the National Initiative Party.