Amnesty International Report 1995 - Romania
- Document source:
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Date:
1 January 1995
At least three prisoners of conscience were held. Three Roma were arbitrarily detained, apparently because of their ethnic origin. There were reports of torture and ill-treatment by the police. In February the Senate adopted a draft law for the revision of the Penal Code. The debate on this law in the Chamber of Deputies lasted throughout the year. Some of the adopted amendments imposed even greater restrictions on the right to freedom of expression than before. These concerned: dissemination of false news, offences against insignia, defamation of the state or nation, offences against the authorities and "outrage". An adopted amendment to Article 200, paragraph 1, was ambiguous and could lead to the imprisonment of homosexuals solely for engaging in private consensual sexual relations between adults. In December, however, the Chamber of Deputies rejected the draft law as a whole and returned it for a second debate to the Senate. In March Council of Europe rapporteurs visited Romania to evaluate the human rights situation as well as the implementation of recommendations made on Romania's admission to the organization. They concluded that not all the obligations Romania had accepted had been honoured and recommended continued monitoring. In July the Constitutional Court ruled that Article 200, paragraph 1, of the Penal Code was unconstitutional "to the extent to which it applies to sexual relations between adults of the same sex, freely consummated, not committed in public or not causing public scandal". The decision, however, had not come into force by the end of the year. Some of those suspected of perpetrating human rights violations in the past were brought to trial. In May a former security service investigator was arrested and charged with illegally detaining four minors in 1989 for handing out leaflets opposing the then President Nicolae CeauÂescu. In June three army officers charged with the killing of 50 cadets and civilians at Otopeni airport on 23 December 1989 were brought to trial. Relatives and airport staff who were called as witnesses said they had received death threats and that they feared reprisals if the accused were convicted. The defendants remained free. In November the intelligence service, Serviciul Român de Informatii, in its annual report on national security referred to the human rights monitoring work of certain independent Roma organizations as destabilizing and unconstitutional. In June Romania ratified the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. In October it ratified the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. People continued to be imprisoned solely because of their homosexuality; they were prisoners of conscience. Cosmin Hutanu, who was convicted under Article 200, paragraph 1, of the Penal Code and had begun serving a 14-month prison sentence in July 1993 (see Amnesty International Report 1994), was conditionally released in March. Three other men convicted under the same law were serving concurrent sentences for other crimes. More information came to light during the year about imprisonments in 1993 under Article 200, paragraph 1. Traian Pasca was imprisoned solely under this charge for nine months in 1993. This contradicted information compiled by the Ministry of Justice in November 1993. Prosecutions for defaming state authority, under Article 238, paragraph 1, of the Penal Code, led to people being imprisoned for peacefully exercising their right to freedom of expression. In September Ionel Buzoianu was released after 18 months in detention in Bucharest, the capital, pending trial. He had been charged in March 1993 for writing a slogan on his car accusing the police of corruption. At the end of the year his trial was continuing. In February Nicolae Andrei, a journalist in Craiova, was detained for five days for publishing an article which was considered defamatory of the President, Ion Iliescu. The case was still under investigation at the end of the year. Both men were considered prisoners of conscience. The enforcement of the law on misdemeanours (Law 61/91) also led to apparently arbitrary political detentions. There was concern that this law was used to intimidate some people who complained about ill-treatment by law enforcement officers. Police harassment of Emil Macau, a Rom, reportedly began in August 1993 and was apparently motivated by his ethnic origin. On 17 April after returning from Bucharest, where he had complained on several occasions to the Parliament-ary Commission for Human Rights, Emil Macau and his brother Virgil were arrested by four officers in a shop in Victoria, Brasov County. Emil Macau was reportedly beaten while two officers held his brother with a gun to his chin. They were then taken to Fagaras and charged under Law 61/91 with disturbing the public peace because "their arrest caused indignation to around 200 people who had gathered in front of the shop". Emil Macau was sentenced to two months' imprisonment and Virgil Macau to 40 days. Their motion for a new trial was rejected by two judges of the same court which had tried them earlier. In November 1993 Maria Moldovan, also a Rom, was ordered to pay a fine under Law 61/91 for "shouting that her son had been beaten". She appealed to the Tîrgu Mure Court and a hearing had been set for 26 August. However, the same court issued an arrest warrant for Maria Moldovan, converting the fine into 33 days' imprisonment. She was arrested on 15 June and released two days later, apparently after the authorities recognized that a judicial error had been committed. In October the court rejected her appeal. There were other reports of ill-treatment of Roma by police officers. In April Valentin Laca went to the police station in Valea Larga to complain about a fine that he had been given. He was reportedly beaten and kicked by an official and two police officers. Government investigations into ill-treatment of Roma by law enforcement officers and acts of racist violence were slow and appeared not to have been thorough or impartial. No one was prosecuted for a violent attack by soldiers on Roma in Bucharest in 1992 (see Amnesty International Report 1993). In November the General Prosecutor stated that the soldiers had been provoked and had "spontaneously beat Roma with rubber truncheons". He considered the decision of the Military Prosecutor not to charge anyone to be legally justified. There was also no prosecution of anyone involved in racist violence in Hadareni in September 1993, when two Roma had been killed and one burned to death (see Amnesty International Report 1994). Three police officers from the village were "reprimanded and reassigned". One of them was transferred to Valea Larga, a village in the same county, where he was allegedly involved in the ill-treatment of Valentin Laca. There were many other reports of torture and ill-treatment by the police. In July Gabriela-Ioana Gavrila was arrested by two police officers in front of her apartment in Bucharest. They reportedly twisted her hands and kicked her in the abdomen causing her to fall to the ground. She was then punched in the back and on the head and pulled into the lift. At the prosecutor's office she was questioned about the business affairs of a private firm where she was employed. A medical examination later that day confirmed that she had been beaten. In November, in Galati, two journalists and a female city councillor who were investigating the operation of a firm which removed illegally parked vehicles were beaten by the firm's manager and four employees in the presence of two police officers who reportedly did not intervene to protect them. A number of investigations into police abuses were completed. Two police officers were charged with illegal detention and abusive conduct towards Viorel Baciu in 1988 (see Amnesty International Reports 1992 and 1994). Viorel Baciu was released from BotoÂani penitentiary in September following a presidential pardon. However, most of the other police officers considered responsible for abusive conduct were subjected only to disciplinary measures or fines; as in the case of two officers involved in the torture of Andrei Zanopol (see Amnesty International Report 1994). Amnesty International urged members of parliament throughout the year to ensure that the revised Penal Code was consistent with Romania's legal obligations under international human rights treaties. In March Amnesty International published a report, Romania: Criminal law reform on the wrong track. The organization also expressed concern about the detention and prosecution of journalist Nicolae Andrei. In May it called for an impartial review of the case against Emil and Virgil Macu. In June Amnesty International expressed concern about the detention of Maria Moldovan. Amnesty International also repeatedly called for reports of torture and ill-treatment to be investigated and those responsible brought to justice. The Romanian authorities responded giving information about investigations into reports of torture and ill-treatment and about the prosecution of suspected perpetrators of human rights abuses. In April Amnesty International was informed that the investigation into the deaths of Andrei Frumusanu and Aurica Crainiceanu (see Amnesty International Reports 1993 and 1994) had still not been completed. In July the government informed Amnesty International that Viorel Horia (see Amnesty International Reports 1992 to 1994) had been found, that he had left home of his own volition and had never been detained.
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