罗马尼亚一家上诉法庭维持了对一名男子20年有期徒刑的原判。此人因为曾经管理一所臭名昭著的监狱而被判犯有反人类罪。
布加勒斯特高等法院星期三驳回了90岁的亚力山大·威西奈斯库提起的上诉。威西奈斯库2015年7月被定罪,他曾经是关押政治犯的拉姆尼库·萨拉特监狱的负责人。在那里,犯人被单独监禁,彼此不许说话,而且要忍饥挨饿,遭受毒打。
威西奈斯库的律师说,他当时只是在服从命令,并没有违反法律。
判决的支持者们说,此项判决为审判罪案树立了一个重要的先例。除威西奈斯库之外,罗马尼亚前苏联集团时期仅有的另外一位被指控犯有反人类罪的人是独裁者齐奥塞斯库。他在1989年被审判并处决。
Romanian appeals court has upheld a 20-year jail term for a man who ran a notorious communist-era prison and was convicted of crimes against humanity.
The Bucharest High Court on Wednesday rejected an appeal from 90-year-old Alexandru Visinescu, who was convicted in July 2015. He ran the Ramnicu Sarat prison for political detainees, where all prisoners were kept in solitary confinement, could not speak to each other, and were starved and beaten.
Visinescu’s lawyers said he was only obeying orders and did not break the law.
Supporters of the ruling say it sets an important precedent for communist-era crimes. Besides Visinescu, the only other person who has been charged with crimes against humanity from Romania’s brutal Soviet Bloc days is dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, who was tried and executed in 1989.