Estimated read time: Less than a minute
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — An appeals court hearing has started in Romania for a former communist prison chief, who was sentenced in a lower court to 20 years in prison for crimes against humanity.
Alexandru Visinescu, 90, on Wednesday appeared in court to appeal his July conviction for the death of 12 prisoners due to mistreatment under his command at the Ramnicu Sarat lockup from 1956 to 1963, where Romania's pre-war elite were incarcerated.
His lawyer, Nicolae Oltean, asked the High Court for Cassation and Justice to re-examine the prisoners' death certificates, but the judge ruled against that.
Visinescu says he was merely following orders. He waited in court for nine hours Wednesday and said he was too tired to make a statement. The next hearing is scheduled for Jan. 27.
Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.