Ceausescus defiant
“We tried to get you a lawyer,” the voice said. “Your crimes were such that you merit the biggest penalty.” Ceausescu tried to comfort his wife by touching her hand. She looked down and licked her lips. “It is sad that you do not wish to confess the crimes you have committed against the Romanian people,” the voice said. “You have not only deprived the people of bread and heating, but you imprisoned the Romanian spirit which could not express itself in any way. You took oxygen from the wounded. Your terrorists supplied themselves in the underground and opposed the people. You have drained us. You went to the Ayatollah to make your final goodbyes (a reference to Ceausescu’s State visit to Iran last week). You call on the people. How can you face this very people?” Elena laughed. “This laugh says all that needs to be said about you,” the voice said. “On the basis of your behaviour, you belong in a madhouse,” the voice said. “The two of you,
if you beg my pardon, should listen to what I am saying.” Ceausescu throughout the trial often turned his head back and forth like a trapped animal. “You have nothing to say about the revolution? The blood spilled in Timisoara?” the voice said. Ceausescu stood up. “I can only be accused by the people’s Parliament. You are putschists, the destroyers of Romania’s independence.” He sat down again. “I was respected when I went to the factories ...” But the voice interrupted him before he could finish. When ordered to stand, Ceausescu and his wife refused. “It is unanimously decided that Ceausescu Nicolae and Ceausescu Elena be given the maximum sentence for genocide against the Romanian people and the destruction of the Romanian land,” the voice said. “I refuse to recognise this court,” Ceausescu declared. The footage stopped. Then shots of Ceausescu’s blood-stained corpse, previously shown on television, were screened again. An Army officer, said so many soldiers had volunteered to join the firing squad that a lottery was held to allocate places.
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Press, 28 December 1989, Page 7
Word Count
344Ceausescus defiant Press, 28 December 1989, Page 7
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