Top Communist-Era General Wants 15 Yr Jail Term Lifted

Former high-ranking general Victor Athanasie Stanculescu, sentenced to 15 years in prison Wednesday for his role in the killing of in demonstrators during the 1989 anti-communist revolution, asked that his jail term be lifted.

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Stanculescu’s lawyer, Alice Draghici, told MEDIAFAX Thursday that she 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.

Romania’s Supreme Court on Wednesday sentenced two former high-ranking generals to 15 years in jail each for their role in killing demonstrators during the 1989 anti-communist revolution.

The Court upheld a 2007 ruling against retired generals Mihai Chitac and Victor Stanculescu, rejecting the defenders’ appeal in the case.

The court’s decision is final and binding.

Both Chitac and Stanculescu were arrested Wednesday.

The two men, now in their 80s, require constant medical assistance and will serve their sentences at Jilava prison hospital, police said.

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.

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