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FILE - In this Thursday, May 17, 2007 file photo, former Romanian President Ion Iliescu gestures during a meeting with foreign media in Bucharest, Romania. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda, File)
Former Romanian President, Ion Iliescu, was charged with crimes against humanity for his alleged participation in a 1990 violent suppression of an anti-government demonstration.
Iliescu was summoned on Wednesday at the Prosecutor's Office of the High Court of Cassation and Justice, Romania's Supreme Court, to be officially informed of the charges, AGERPRES news agency informs.
The former president is accused of instigating industrial workers and miners to participate in a series of violent interventions in Bucharest in the 1990s, known as mineriads.
The most violent mineriad occurred at University Square in Bucharest on 13-15 June 1990, when four people were killed and another three suffered gunshot injuries, while nearly 1000 were abusively detained.
Earlier in October, military prosecutors decided to change the legal classification and to conduct further criminal prosecution for crimes against humanity.
Other people, who held senior state, civil, military and management positions at the time, have also been charged with crimes against humanity.
Apart from Iliescu, former prime minister Petre Roman, leader of the miners' union Miron Cozma, generals Mihai Chitac and Gheorghe Andrutta as well as several officers have been investigated over time in several criminal cases on the events.
The prosecutors concluded that nearly 100 people died, while another 1300 were injured in the series of mineriads.
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