Romanian president again defends security chief suspected of taking part in communist-era repression

The head of state noted for Euronews Romania that “the Revolution remains a wound” with which Romania has not yet dealt appropriately.

“Precisely because it is an extremely serious matter, the Recorder article was, in my opinion, both tendentious and unserious. You cannot, on such a serious matter, start it with a picture of me and Mr. Pahonțu and five MEPs at a table in Brussels. It is not a matter of gossip. And then, on the facts, it does not prove what it claims to prove,” the president said.

Dan argued that he has no obligation to the security chief but that he tries to be fair “with all the people I deal with, whether they are politicians or heads of state institutions.” To conclude, Dan again noted that the accusations brought against Pahonțu were unsubstantiated.

Journalists from Recorder responded to the president's statements.

“Instead of answering this question and commenting on the activity Lucian Pahonțu had during the events of December 1989, the president considered it more important to provide an editorial analysis of the investigation published by Recorder,” they said.

The journalists went on to criticize the president’s comment regarding the security chief and pointed to the existing proof.

“In our article, we presented the handwritten statement in which Lucian Pahonțu writes that he was present in the area of the Intercontinental barricade on the night of December 21, 1989,” they said.

According to a Recorder investigation published at the end of August, Pahonțu, who currently leads a lesser-known military service charged with the protection of Romanian dignitaries, was with his platoon in the repression deployment against protesters who gathered on December 21, 1989, to take down dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu. He was allegedly present that night in the area of the Intercontinental barricade, where armed troops killed 48 people and arrested hundreds of protesters.

The security chief rejected the accusations, but was then faced with another accusation from Recorder journalists, who argued that he had plagiarized at least a third of his 2003 doctoral thesis.