[youtube]v_azkovlxv4&NR[/youtube] Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife Elena before their executionThe supposed graves of Romanian communist leader, Nicolae Ceausescu, and his wife Elena were exhumed Wednesday. Samples from the remains are being sent to forensic scientists for DNA testing to confirm that they are indeed those of Ceausescu and Elena.
The exhumation comes after five years of lobbying by couple’s only living son, Valentin Ceausescu, and son-in-law and Mircea Oprean. Ceausescu’s daughter, Zoia, was also working on the case until she died of cancer in 2006, according to AFP.
Authorities had previously denied their requests for exhumation saying that legally exhumation could only be done up to 7 years after the burial.
The remains were dug out of the Ghencea military cemetery in the Romanian capital of Bucharest where the couple was supposedly buried after their execution in 1989.
Many Romanians, including the couple’s children, doubt that the bodies are actually Ceausescu and Elena’s. They believe that the couple’s bodies may have been replaced by the corpses of other victims of Romania’s communist revolution.
It will take at least six months for the results of the DNA tests to be known.
If the corpses are confirmed to be the Ceausescu couple’s, Oprean stated that he will arrange a proper funeral for his in-laws. If the remains are not the couple’s, he said he will file a lawsuit against Romanian authorities for distorting the truth about their burial, according to AFP.
Under Ceausescu’s dictatorship, Romanians faced harsh regulations on reproductive rights and freedom of speech, he lead the Romanian communist party from 1965 until 1989 when the Romanians revolted against the communist regime.
The exhumation comes after five years of lobbying by couple’s only living son, Valentin Ceausescu, and son-in-law and Mircea Oprean. Ceausescu’s daughter, Zoia, was also working on the case until she died of cancer in 2006, according to AFP.
Authorities had previously denied their requests for exhumation saying that legally exhumation could only be done up to 7 years after the burial.
The remains were dug out of the Ghencea military cemetery in the Romanian capital of Bucharest where the couple was supposedly buried after their execution in 1989.
Many Romanians, including the couple’s children, doubt that the bodies are actually Ceausescu and Elena’s. They believe that the couple’s bodies may have been replaced by the corpses of other victims of Romania’s communist revolution.
It will take at least six months for the results of the DNA tests to be known.
If the corpses are confirmed to be the Ceausescu couple’s, Oprean stated that he will arrange a proper funeral for his in-laws. If the remains are not the couple’s, he said he will file a lawsuit against Romanian authorities for distorting the truth about their burial, according to AFP.
Under Ceausescu’s dictatorship, Romanians faced harsh regulations on reproductive rights and freedom of speech, he lead the Romanian communist party from 1965 until 1989 when the Romanians revolted against the communist regime.
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