The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg ruled the highest sanctions so far against the Romanian state for not solving the 1989 Revolution case.

The ECHR decided on Tuesday, January 27, that Romania must pay EUR 832,500 compensations to 81 victims of the Revolution in 1989.

More than 1,100 people lost their lives, and more than 3,100 people got injured during the violent repression of the protests against the communist regime in Romania, in December 1989. The protests, which started in Timisoara, led to the fall of Nicolae Ceausescu’s regime.

The Revolution file is still under investigation. The Romanian state said the delay was due to the complexity of the case and its high political and social stake. The ECHR’s judges said these factors don’t justify the backlog. On the contrary, this should have motivated the Romanian authorities to expedite the case.

The Court granted compensations of EUR 15,000 to 30 Revolution victims who were shot during the events, or to their families. The other 51 petitioners received EUR 7,500 each.

This decision raises the total compensations the Romanian state was forced to pay for the 1989 Revolution to almost EUR 1.35 million.

The ECHR also sanctioned Romania last year for the poor investigation of the violent crackdown on June 1990 demonstrations.

editor@romania-insider.com