Communist-era prison camp chief dies behind bars

pulse

September 26, 2018 2:56 PM

In this file picture, Ioan Ficior is seen leaving the building of the General Romanian Prosecution in Bucharest on October 24, 2013 after being charged with "genocide"

The former head of a communist-era prison camp in Romania has died at the age of 90, while serving a 20-year jail sentence for crimes against humanity, officials said on Wednesday.

Ioan Ficior who oversaw the Periprava camp in the country's east between 1958 and 1963, died in the prison hospital of Jilava, outside Bucharest, where he was being treated for "a series of chronic medical problems," a spokeswoman for the national penitentiary authority told AFP.

She did not reveal the exact cause of death.

Ficior, who prosecutors said was responsible for the deaths of 103 prisoners at Periprava -- where political opponents of communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu were interned -- was sentenced last year.

He was the second former prison camp chief to be jailed by the Romanian authorities.

The first, Alexandru Visinescu, is also currently serving a 20-year sentence and is now aged 92. He was head of the Ramnicu Sarat camp in eastern Romania.

Prosecutors say that Ficior's regime in Periprava was inhumane and repressive, but he always protested his innocence.

He was brought to trial in 2014 following legal action by the Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes.

In all, more than 600,000 Romanians were convicted and jailed for political reasons under the communist regime between 1945 and 1989, according to the Memorial Museum for Victims of Communism in Sighet in northwestern Romania.

Romania's communist era came to an end with the fall of Ceausescu in 1989. The country joined the European Union in 2007, along with neighbouring Bulgaria.

pulse