Romanian Court Releases Communist-Era General Chitac To Allow Surgical Procedures

Thus, the court admitted Chitac’s request to have his 15-year jail term interrupted after it received a document from the Bucharest Floreasca Emergency Hospital, saying Chitac was scheduled for surgery on June 22, and thus decided to release Chitac on June 21.

 

Chitac’s lawyer, Alice Draghici, told judges she only wants her client to undergo surgery, recover physically and then go back to prison to serve his sentence.

 

On October 15, 2008, the Supreme Court sentenced former high-ranking Athanasie Stanculescu and Chitac to 15 years in jail each. On October 16, Stanculescu’s lawyer, Alice Draghici, filed a request at the Bucharest Military Court for the interruption of her client’s jail term, and an appeal for the annulment of the sentence at the High Court of Justice.
 
On October 21, the Bucharest Military Court allowed the former generals’ requests for a medical expertise at the National Forensic Medicine Institute, meant to establish if they can carry out their sentence in prison and subsequently, medical examinations indicated that they suffer from chronic illnesses.
 
Chitac and Stanculescu were first sentenced in 1999 on aggravated murder charges for ordering troops to fire on demonstrators in Timisoara city, western Romania.
 
They appealed the ruling several times. The latest appeal was in 2007, when they were sentenced to 15 years in jail by the Supreme Court.