18 august 2014

PRESS RELEASE

The Public Information and Press Relations Bureau within the Prosecutor’s Office attached to the High Court of Cassation and Justice is authorized to bring to the public knowledge the following:

In the file dealing with the denunciation draw up by the Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes and the Memory of the Romanian Exile against the named FICIOR IOAN, the prosecutors of the Criminal Investigation and Forensics Section within the Prosecutor's Office attached to the High Court of Cassation and Justice have finalized the investigations and ordered his sending to court for committing crimes against humanity.

In the issued indictment, the prosecutors stated the following facts:

During 01/08/1958 - 01/11/1963, when acting as the deputy and commander of the Labour colony from Periprava, the defendant committed actions and systematic failures resulting in the opression of the community represented by the political prisoners incarcerated in the Labour Colony from Periprava, by deprivation of the fundamental human rights or serious restriction of the exercise of these rights, for political reasons, namely by submitting to improper living conditions or treatment leading to the bodily destruction of political prisoners. To be mentioned that in the above stated period there were registered a number of 103 deaths among political prisoners, as a result of some actions exceeding the legal frame, namely the lack of medicines and medical care, the refuse to give proper assistance, untreated patients, refusal of transfer to the prison hospitals, damaging the health of prisoners through the absence of food, lack of heat, discretionary punishments and abuse of detainees, inhumane prison conditions, ill-treatment and other such violences, ignoring the addresses and complaints drawn up by the prisoners.

Thus, as labor colony commander, the defendant Ficior Ioan was directly responsible for the "life of prisoners", as shown in the Regulations of the General Directorate of Prisons, which means that all the conditions of detention were organized or at least tolerated by him.                                            

It is well known that the Regulations in the matter of detention conditions that were in force at the time were the only prerequisites for the organization of the extermination regime in prisons and labour colonies, or dressed in an official form, while the concrete measures taken for the annihilation of the political prisoners were left to the commanders of the prisons and only fined by orders and unofficial recommendations arrived on party level. The death of political prisoners came via a slow but effective process, by which they were physically and mentally tortured.

Specifically, the detainees were subjected to inhuman treatment characterized by a complete isolation from families and any other persons, the outside world in general, the miserable accommodation conditions, the unbearable cold in the sheds, cruel physical penalties for minor deviations, poor nutrition, the prisoners being constantly hungry and thirsty, with pain that they could not ameliorate because of the lack of medicines and, last but not least, the inhuman working conditions to which they were submitted. The imposed regime did not provide under any circumstances the minimum long-term survival conditions, given that most of the times the sentences stretched over a period exceeding 10 years.

Thus, as we have said, the prisoners did not receive enough food and water, but they were put to work in difficult conditions from morning to evening. They could not rest properly, the rooms being overcrowded and they could not wash. The unsanitary conditions leading to the illness of the prisoners, case in which they where taken out to continue working and did not receive medical care. To all these there are added the psychological violences exercised directly by Ficior Ioan or through his subordinates. All these factors together caused the deaths of several detainees.

So far the studied documents revealed that between 08/01/1958 - 01/11/1963, when at the management of the colony from Periprava was the accused Ficior Ioan, died 103 prisoners, all part of the community of the counterrevolutionaries.

Statistics of the death causes, as evidenced by the death certificates, as the case was, from the medical records found in archives, indicate, for example, the following causes:

- 15 deaths due to chronic or acute enterocolitis, associated or not with other diseases. One of the diseases that are associated with the enterocolitis is cachexia;

- 19 deaths from tuberculosis and / or pneumonia;

- 21 deaths due to various diseases of the digestive and excretory apparatus;

- 32 deaths caused by heart diseases.

From the statistical analysis, it appears that the period August 1958 - September 1963, in the Periprava Labor colony  there were recorded, according to official records, a total of 103 deaths (all part of the community counterrevolutionaries), the year with most deaths being 1960, when there were 53 registered deaths. Out of the 103 cases, the youngest detainee deceased in 1960 was 19 years old, and the oldest prisoner deceased in 1961, was 71 years old.

In a report regarding the activity within the Periprava Formation, drawn by the control organisms of the General Directorate of Prisons, Colonies and Labour units, it is recorded the abusive tendency to punish the prisoners with the maximum punishment without taking into account the severity of the facts. The same document records a series of abuses committed during the rule of  Ficor Ioan at Periprava, described as "anarchical", without taking into account the provisions of the regulations. Such punishments were: beatings, tying to the tree with handcuffs for several hours at temperatures of 20 degrees. These documents are filled in with testimonies from former detainees which remind of the abuses they were submitted to by the formation commander and his staff.

Basically, the organization and operation of the extermination regime, could not be regulated through official documents,  and depended on the effectiveness and inventiveness of the prison commanders, but also to their obedience and loyalty shown to the party.

The distribution at the prison management was made also through reporting at the quality of the political prisoners and in the interest of the Party for their quick disposal. It is remarked the fact that within the Periprava Labor colony there were imprisoned mainly counterrevolutionaries, but also politicians which resulted in the need to appoint a prison commander experimented in rehabilitation and dependable. This explains the extreme harshness of commander Ficior Ioan and the disturbing results obtained in the extermination process planned by him.

The case was filed for competent settlement to Bucharest Court of Appeal.

Please take into account that this stage of the criminal process represents, according to the Criminal Procedure Code, the finalization of the criminal investigation and sending the indictment to court for trial, a situation which can not in any way infringe the principle of presumption of innocence.