Court finds former president Basescu political police informant in final ruling

 

The Supreme Court dismissed an appeal filed by the former president, sustaining the decision of September 20, 2019, issued by the Bucharest Court of Appeal - the court of first instance, by which the National Council for the Study of the Securitate Archives (CNSAS) action was taken up and found Traian Basescu was a Securitate informant.

 

"The court is hereby dismissing the legality objection raised by the appellant-defendant Basescu Traian. It is also dismissing the appeal as filed on November 5, 2021 by the appellant-defendant Basescu Traian against Ruling 471 of September 20, 2019, issued by the Bucharest Court of Appeal - Section VIII administrative and fiscal litigation. It is ruling in favour of the request for accessory intervention filed by the intervener Ciuvica Mugur-Cristian in the interest of the respondent-plaintiff National Council for the Study of Securitate Archives (CNSAS). Final. Public hearing, today, March 23, 2022," the court ruling reads.

 

According to CNSAS, Basescu allegedly told on one of his merchant navy colleagues, which led to that person being grounded in Romania.

 

Court filings submitted to the court by CNSAS show that Basescu would have had a liaison officer in the rank of lieutenant-colonel appointed by the late Securitate to whom he would have given two hand-written informative notes.

 

According to CNSAS, during his collaboration with the Securitate, Basescu provided information denouncing activities contrary to the totalitarian communist regime, such as the intention to go abroad and having relations with foreign citizens, existing in informative notes of May 5, 1975.

 

"Analysing the information provided by the defendant, we consider that that was aimed at restricting the right to privacy (Article 17 in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights) and the liberty of movement (Article 12 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights," wrote CNSAS.

 

According to CNSAS, following one of the informative notes submitted by Basescu on a colleague, the Securitate denied the latter's appointment to Romanian ships that were leaving the country's borders.

 

During the trial at the Bucharest Court of Appeal, Basescu denied having been a Securitate informant.

 

"CNSAS and I have totally different points of view. We will be reconciled by a third, the judge," Basescu said at the time.

 

He said in court that he did not know that a conspiratorial name had been assigned to him, insisting that his reports were signed "Captain Traian Basescu."

 

"I did not know that I was given a conspiratorial name. I did not sign a pledge to include a conspiratorial name. (...) I did not know that the Military Counterintelligence Service was the Securitate. I thought it was a service of the Defence Ministry," Basescu said.

 

He added that the students of the Civilian Section of the Navy Institute were not forbidden to get in touch with foreign citizens, to have relations with them outside their professional setting. He recalled that in summer, as students, they would go to the Black Sea resort of Mamaia, where they would meet young people from Czechoslovakia.

 

"Romanian ships were operating in all ports of the world, and at the Merchant Section students would get accustomed to and prepared for contacts with foreigners. (...) We never considered that our relations with Czech students could be condemned. We were not hiding, because no one was forbidding us to do that," said Basescu.