Published on 3 January 2022

FOURTH SECTION

Application no. 34323/21 Ștefan-Gabriel MOCANU against Romania and 4 other applications (see list appended) communicated on 9 December 2021

STATEMENT OF FACTS

The applicants are Romanian nationals. Their personal details appear in the Appendix. They are represented before the Court by Ms E. Arjoca, Mr I. Matei and Mr A. Popescu, lawyers practising in Bucharest.

The facts of the case, as submitted by the applicants, may be summarised as follows. They are similar to those presented in Mocanu and Others v. Romania ([GC], nos. 10865/09 and 2 others, ECHR 2014 (extracts)). As far as the applicants are individually concerned, the following is of relevance.

On 13 June 1990 the security forces’ intervention against the demonstrators who were occupying University Square and other areas of the capital resulted in several civilian casualties, including Mr Velicu-Valentin Mocanu, the father of the applicants Mr Ștefan-Gabriel Mocanu and Ms Maria-Raluca Mocanu, who was killed by a shot fired from the headquarters of the Ministry of the Interior.

Between 13 and 15 June 1990, the applicants Mr Viorel Frijanu, Ms Liliana Dimitriu and Mr Nicolae Neșcu were beaten and injured by the armed forces in the circumstances descried in the attached table.

Criminal investigations opened in 1990 concerning the use of force against several hundreds of victims that were later the subject matter of the main case no. 75/P/1998, recorded with the domestic military prosecutor’s office. On 17 June 2009 the prosecutor’s office at the High Court of Cassation and Justice issued a decision not to bring a prosecution in the case, concerning essentially charges of inhuman treatment as a result of the violence committed from 13 to 15 June 1990. After several appeals against the decision not to bring a prosecution in the case and the judgement of the Court in the case Mocanu and Others , cited above, the investigation reopened under the case no. 47/P/2014 of the military prosecutor’s office at the High Court of Cassation and Justice.

On 12 June 2017 the prosecutor’s office sent to trial 14 individuals (namely a former Romanian President, a former Romanian Prime-Minister and several high ranked military officers at the material time, including the Head of the Romanian Secret Service) for crimes against humanity and it closed the investigation with regard to other individuals for different reasons preventing the continuity of criminal proceedings (i.e. some of the suspects died). According to this decision ( rechizitoriu ) of the military prosecutor’s office at the High Court of Cassation and Justice, the accused high ranked officials had decided, planned and ordered to forcibly shut down the peaceful demonstration in the University square by military intervention using war type ammunition ( muniţie de război ) against unarmed civilians and told the population through the national television that the demonstrators were fascist and hooligans in order to mobilise thousands of workers, with the help of their trade unions, to join the armed forces against the peaceful demonstrators. The Government, through the Ministry of Interior was designated to participate in the trial in its quality of civilly liable party ( parte responsabilă civilmente ).

On 8 May 2019, the proceedings before the Preliminary Chamber of the High Court of Cassation and Justice ended by a decision of the judge of the Preliminary Chamber finding the irregularity of the prosecutor’s office decision of 12 June 2017 because inter alia of the lack of accuracy, clarity and coherence in the description of the facts imputed to the accused persons ( modalitatea de expunere a faptelor deduse judecăţii este lipsită de precizie, claritate, cursivitate și coerenţă ). By the same decision, the judge of the Preliminary Chamber annulled several previous decisions taken during the investigation and decided to exclude from the investigation file all the evidence gathered so far. Finally, the judge decided to send the case back to the military prosecutor’s office at the High Court of Cassation and Justice.

On 10 December 2020 an appeal against the decision of 8 May 2019 was dismissed by the High Court of Cassation and Justice. At the date of the latest information available to the Court (June 2021), the proceedings were still pending before the military prosecutor’s office at the High Court of Cassation and Justice.

COMPLAINTS

Relying on Articles 2 and 3 of the Convention, the applicants complain of the failure by the authorities, even after the findings of the Court in its judgement Mocanu and Others (cited above), to undergo an effective criminal investigation, capable of leading to the punishment of those responsible for their injuries or the death of their close relative during the events of June 1990 in Bucharest.

QUESTIONS TO THE PARTIES

Having regard to the procedural protection of the right to life and to the procedural protection from inhuman or degrading treatment (see Mocanu and Others v. Romania [GC], nos. 10865/09 and 2 others, ECHR 2014 (extracts)), was the investigation in the present cases compatible with the procedural requirements of Articles 2 and/or 3 of the Convention?

The Government is invited to submit factual information and relevant documents on the current state of the criminal investigations after the decision of 10 December 2020 by the High Court of Cassation and Justice.

APPENDIX

No.

Application no.

Lodged on

Applicant name

Date of birth

Place of residence

Represented by

Particular circumstances of the application

34323/21

22/06/2021

Ștefan-Gabriel MOCANU

08/03/1988

Chiajna (Dudu)

Eleonora ARJOCA,

Ionuţ MATEI,

Antonie POPESCU

Son of a victim killed by gunshot on 13 June 1990 in Bucharest.

34336/21

25/06/2021

Viorel FRIJANU

10/09/1964

Pașcani

Eleonora ARJOCA,

Ionuţ MATEI

Beaten and injured by the armed forces and arbitrary placed in detention first in the premises of the national broadcasting corporation ( Televiziunea Română ), in Bucharest, on 13-15 June 1990.

34877/21

25/06/2021

Liliana DIMITRIU

14/09/1967

Pașcani

Eleonora ARJOCA,

Ionuţ MATEI

Beaten and injured by the armed forces and arbitrary placed in detention first in the premises of the national broadcasting corporation ( Televiziunea Română ), in Bucharest, on 13-15 June 1990.

34900/21

25/06/2021

Maria-Raluca MOCANU

27/04/1990

Bucharest

Eleonora ARJOCA,

Ionuţ MATEI,

Antonie POPESCU

Daughter of a victim killed by gunshot on 13 June 1990 in Bucharest.

35510/21

02/07/2021

Nicolae NEȘCU

25/07/1949

Popești-Leordeni

Eleonora ARJOCA,

Ionuţ MATEI

Beaten and injured by the armed forces in the morning of 13 June 1990, on the University Square ( Piaţa Universităţii ) in Bucharest.