Transcript of the:

  NICOLAE CEAUSESCU: I only recognize the Grand National
 Assembly.  I will only speak in front of it.
  PROSECUTOR: In the same way he refused to hold a dialogue
    with the people, now he also refuses to speak with us.  He
    always claimed to act and speak on behalf of the people, to be
    a beloved son of the people, but he only tyrannized the people
    all the time.  You are faced with charges that you held really
    sumptuous celebrations on all holidays at your house.  The
    details are known.  These two defendants procured the most
    luxurious foodstuffs and clothes from abroad.They were even
    worse than the king, the former king of Romania.  The people
   only received 200 grams per day, against an identity card.
   These two defendants have robbed the people, and not even
   today do they want to talk.  Thev are cowards.  We have data
   concerning both of them.  I ask the chairman of the prosecutor's
   office to read the bill of indictment.
CHIEF PROSECUTOR: Esteemed chairman of the court, today
   we have to pass a verdict on the defendants Nicolae Ceausescu
   and Elena Ceausescu who have committed the following
   offenses: Crimes against the people.  They carried out acts that
   are incompatible with human dignity and social thinking; they
   acted in a despotic and criminal way; they destroyed the people
    whose leaders they claimed to be.  Because of the crimes
   they committed against the people, I plead, on behalf of the
   victims of these two tyrants, for the death sentence for the two
   defendants.  The bill of indictment contains the following
   points: Genocide, in accordance with Article 356 of the penal
   code.  Two: Armed attack on the people and the state power,
   in accordance with Article 163 of the penal code.  The destruction
   of buildings and state institutions, undermining of the
   national economy, in accordance with Articles 165 and 145 of
   the penal code.  They obstructed the normal process of the
   economy.
PROSECUTOR: Did you hear the charges?  Have you understood
   them?
CEAUSESCU: I do not answer, I will only answer questions
   before the Grand National Assembly.  I do not recognize this
   court.  The charges are incorrect, and I will not answer a single
   question here.
PROSECUTOR: Note: He does not recognize the points men-
   tioned in the bill of indictment.
CEAUSESCU: I will not sign anything.
PROSECUTOR: This situation is known.  The catastrophic situation
of the country is known all over the world.  Every honest
   citizen who worked hard here until 22 December knows that
   we do not have medicines, that you two have killed children
   and other people in this way, that there is nothing to eat, no
   heating, no electricity,

   Elena and Nicolae reject this.  Another question to Ceausescu:
 Who ordered the bloodbath in Timisoara.  Cea sescu refused to
 answer.

 PROSECUTOR: Who gave the order to shoot in Bucharest, for
   instance?
 CEAUSESCU: I do not answer.
 PROSECUTOR: Who ordered shooting into the crowd?  Tell us!

   At that momentElenasays toNicolae:Forget about them.  You
 see, there is no use in talking to these people.

 PROSECUTOR: Do you not know anything about the order to
   shoot?

   Nicolae reacts with astonishment.
   There is still shooting going on, the prosecutor says.  Fanatics ,
 whom you are paying.  They are shooting at children; they are
 shooting arbitrarily into the apartments.  Who are these fanatics?
 Are they the people, or are you paying them?

 CEAUSESCU: I will not answer.  I will not answer any question.
   Not a single shot was fired in Palace Square.  Not a single shot.
   No one was shot.
 PROSECUTOR: By now, there have been 34 casualties.
   Elena says: Look, and that they are calling genocide.
 PROSECUTOR: In all district capitals , which you grandly called
   municipalities, there is shooting going on.  The people were
   slaves.  The entire intelligentsia of the country ran away.  No
   one wanted to do anything for you anymore.
 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Mr. President, I would like to know
   something: The accused should tell us who the mercenaries
   are.  Who pays them?  And who brought them into the country?
 PROSECUTOR: Yes.  Accused, answer.
 CEAUSESCU: I will not say anything more.  I will only speak at
   the Grand National Assembly.

   Elena keeps whispering to him.  As a result, the prosecutor says:
 Elena has always been talkative, but otherwise she does not know
 much.  I have observed that she is not even able to read correctly,
 but she calls herself an university graduate.  Elena answers: The
 intellectuals of this country should hear you, you and your colleagues.
   The prosecutor cites all academic titles she had always claimed
 to have.

  ELIENA CEAUSESCU: The intelligentsia of the country will hear
    what you are accusing us of.
  PROSECUTOR: Nicolae Ceausescu should tell us why he does not
    answer our questions.  What prevents him from doing so ?
  CEAUSESCU: I will answer any question, but only at the Grand
    National Assembly, before the representatives of the working
    class.  Tell the people that I will answer all their questions.  All
    the world should know what is going on here.  I only recognize
    the working class and the Grand National Assembly-no one
    else.

    The prosecutor says: The world already knows what has happened here.
    I will not answer you putschists, Ceausescu says.

  PROSECUTOR: The Grand National Assembly has been dissolved.
  CEAUSESCU: This is not possible at all.  No one can dissolve the
    National Assembly.
  PROSECUTOR: We now have another leading organ.  The National
    Salvation Front is now our supreme body.
  CEAUSESCU: No one recognizes that.  That is why the people are
    fighting all over the country.  This gang will be destroyed.  They
    organized the putsch.
  PROSECUTOR: The people are fighting against you, not against
    the new forum.
  CEAUSESCU: No, the people are fighting for freedom and
    against the new forum.  I do not recognize the court.
  PROSECUTOR: Why do you think that people are fighting today?
    What do you think?

    Ceausescu answers: As I said before, the people are fighting for
  their freedom and against this putsch, against this usurpations
  Ceausescu claims that the putsch was organized from abroad.

  CEAUSESCU: I do not recognize this court.  I will not answer any
    more.  I am now talking to you as simple citizens, and I hope
    that you will tell the truth.  I hope that you do not also work for
    the foreigners and for the destruction of Romania.

    The prosecutor asks the counsel for the defense to ask Ceausescu
  whether he knows that he is no longer president of the  country,
  that Elena Ceausescu has also lost all her official state
   functions and that the government has been dissolved.
    The prosecutor wants to find out on which basis the trial can
  be continued.  It must be cleared up whether Ceausescu wants to,
  should, must or can answer at all.  At the moment the situation
  is rather uncertain.
    Now the counsel for the defense, who was appointed by the
  court, asks whether Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu know the aforementioned
  facts- that he is no longer president, that she has lost
  all official functions.  He answers: I am the president of Romania,
  and I am the commander in chief of the Romanian army.  No one
  can deprive me of these functions.

  PROSECUTOR: But not of our army, you are not the commander
    in chief of our army.
  CEAUSESCU: I do not recognize you.  I am talking to you as
    simple citizens at the least, as simple citizens, and I tell you: I
    am the president of Romania.
  PROSECUTOR: What are you really?
  CEAUSESCU: I repeat: I am the president of Romania and the
    commander in chief of the Romanian army.  I am the president
    of the people.  I will not speak with you provocateurs anymore,
    and I will not speak with the organizers of the putsch and with
    the mercenaries.  I have nothing to do with them.
  PROSECUTOR: Yes, but you are paying the mercenaries.

    No, no, he says.  And Elena says.- It is incredible what they are
  inventing, incredible.

  PROSECUTOR: Please, make a note: Ceausescu does not recognize
   the new legal structures of power of the country.  He still
    considers himself to be the country's president and the commander
    in chief of the army.
      Why did you ruin the country so much: Why did you export
    everything?  Why did you make the peasants starve?  The produce
    which the peasants grew was exported, and the peasants
    came from the most remote provinces to Bucharest and to the
    other cities in order to buy bread.  They cultivated the soil in
    line with your orders and had nothing to eat.  Why did you
    starve the people?
  CEAUSESCU: I will not answer this question.  As a simple citizen,
    I tell you the following: For the first time I guaranteed that
    every peasant received 200 kilograms of wheat per person, not
    per family, and that he is entitled to more.  It is a lie that I made
    the people starve.  A lie, a lie in my face.  This shows how little
    patriotism there is, how many treasonable offenses were committed.
  PROSECUTOR: You claim to have taken measures so that every
    peasant is entitled to 200 kilograms of wheat.  Why do the
    peasants then buy their bread in Bucharest?
    The prosecutor quotes Ceausescu, Ceausescu's program.
  PROSECUTOR: We have wonderful programs.  Paper is patient.
    However, why are your programs not implemented?  You have
    destroyed the Romanian villages and the Romanian soil.  What
    do you say as a citizen?
  CEAUSESCU: As a citizen, as a simple citizen, I tell you the
    following: At no point was there such an upswing, so much
    construction, so much consolidation in the Romanian provinces.
I guaranteed that every village has its schools, hospitals
    and doctors.  I have done everything to create a decent and rich
    life for the people in the country, like in no other country in
    the world.
  PROSECUTOR: We have always spoken of equality.  We are all
    equal.  Everybody should be paid according to his performance.
    Now we finally saw your villa on television, the golden
    plates from which you ate, the foodstuffs that you had imported,
    the luxurious celebrations, pictures from your luxurious celebrations.
  ELENA CEAUSESCU: Incredible.  We live in a normal apartment,
    just like every other citizen.  We have ensured an apartment
    for every citizen through corresponding laws.
  PROSECUTOR: You had palaces.
  CEAUSESCU: No, we had no palaces.  The palaces belong to the
    people.

    The prosecutor agrees, but stresses that they lived in them
  while the people suffered.

  PROSECUTOR: Children cannot even buy plain candy, and you
    are living in the palaces of the people.
  CEAUSESCU: Is it possible that we are facing such charges?
  PROSECUTOR: Let us now talk about the accounts in Switzerland,
 Mr. Ceausescu.  What about the accounts?
  ELENA CEAUSESCU: Accounts in Switzerland?  Furnish proof!
CEAUSESCU: We had no account in Switzerland. Nobody  has
     opened an account.  This shows again how false the charges
     are.  What defamation, what provocations!  This was a coup
     d'etat.
   PROSECUTOR: Well, Mr. Defendant, if you had no accounts in
     Switzerland, will you sign a statement confirming that the
     money that may be in Switzerland should be transferred to the
     Romanian state, the State Bank.
   CEAUSESCU: We will discuss this before the Grand National
     Assembly.  I will not say anything here.  This is a vulgar provocation.
   PROSECUTOR: Will you sign the statement now or not?
   CEAUSESCU: No, no.  I have no statement to make, and I will not
     sign one.
   PROSECUTOR: Note the following: The defendant refuses to
     sign this statement.  The defendant has not recognized us.  He
     also refuses to recognize the new forum.
   CEAUSESCU: I do not recognize this new forum.
   PROSECUTOR: So you know the new forum.  You have information about it.

     Elena a d Nicolae Ceausescu state: Well, you told us abo t it.
   You told us about it here.

   CEAUSESCU: Nobody can change the state structures.  This is not
     possible.  Usurpers have been punished severely during the
     past centuries in Romania's history.  Nobody has the right to
     abolish the Grand National Assembly.

     The prosecutor turns to Elena: You have always been wiser and
   more ready to talk, a scientist.  You were the most important aide,
   the number two in the cabinet, in the government.

   PROSECUTOR: Did you know about the genocide in Timisoara?
   ELENA CEAUSESCU: What genocide?  By the way, I will not answer
 any more questions.
   PROSECUTOR: Did you know about the genocide or did you, as
     a chemist, only deal with polymers?  You, as a scientist, did you
     know  about it?

     Here Nicolae Ceausescu steps in and defends her.

   CEAUSESCU: Her scientific papers were published abroad!
   PROSECUTOR: And who wrote the papers for you, Elena?
ELENA CEAUSESCU: Such impudence!  I am a member and the
  chairwoman of the Academy of Sciences.  You cannot talk to
  me in such a way!
PROSECUTOR: That is to say, as a deputy prime minister you did
  not know about the genocide?
CEAUSESCU: She was not a deputy prime minister, but the first
  deputy prime minister!
PROSECUTOR: This is how you worked with the people and
  exercised your functions!  But who gave the order to shoot?
  Answer this question!
ELENA CEAUSESCU: I will not answer.  I told you right at the
  beginning that I will not answer a single question.
CEAUSESCU: You as officers should know that the government
  cannot give the order to shoot.  But those who shot at the young
  people were the security men, the terrorists.
ELENA CEAUSESCU: The terrorists are from Securitate.
PROSECUTOR: The terrorists are from Securitate?
ELENA CEAUSESCU: Yes.
PROSECUTOR: And who heads Securitate?  Another question....
PROSECUTOR: Please, ask Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu
  whether they have ever had a mental illness.
CEAUSESCU: What?  What should he ask us?
PROSECUTOR: Whether you have ever had a mental illness.
CEAUSESCU: What an obscene provocation.
PROSECUTOR: This would serve your defense.  If you had had a
  mental illness and admitted this, you would not be responsible
  for your acts.
ELENA CEAUSESCU: How can one tell us something like this?
  How can one say something like this?
CEAUSESCU: I do not recognize this court.
PROSECUTOR: You have never been able to hold a dialogue
  with the people.  You were not used to talking to the people.
  You held monologues and the people had to applaud, like in
  the rituals of tribal people.  And today you are acting in the
  same megalomaniac way.  Now we are making a last attempt.
  Do you want to sign this statement?
CEAUSESCU: No, we will not sign.  And I also do not recognize
  the counsel for the defense.
  PROSECUTOR: Please, make a note: Nicolae Ceausescu refuses
     to cooperate with the court-appointed counsel for the defense.
  ELENA CEAUSESCU: We will not sign any statement.  We will
     speak only at the National Assembly, because we have worked
     hard for the people all our lives.  We have sacrificed all our lives
     to the people.  And we will not betray our people here.

     The court notes that the investigations have been concluded.
  Then follows the reading of the indictment.

  PROSECUTOR: Mr. Chairman, we find the two accused guilty of
     having committed criminal actions according to the following
     articles of the penal code: Articles 162, 163, 165 and 357.
    Because of this indictment, I call for the death sentence and the
     impounding of the entire property of the two accused.

     The counsellor the defense now takes the floor and instructs
  the Ceausescus once again that they have the right to defense and
  that they should accept this right.

  COUNSEL FOR THE DEFENSE: Even though he-like her-committed
    insane acts, we want to defend them.  We want a legal
     trial.  Only a president who is still confirmed in his position can
     demand to speak at the Grand National Assembly.  If he no
     longer has a certain function, he cannot demand anything at
     all.  Then he is treated like a normal citizen.  Since the old
     government has been dissolved and Ceausescu has lost his
     functions, he no longer has the right to be treated as the president.
     Please make a note that here it has been stated that all
     legal regulations have been observed, that this is a legal trial.
     Therefore, it is a mistake for the two accused to refuse to
     cooperate with us.  This is a legal trial, and I honor them by
     defending them.
      At the beginning, Ceausescu claimed that it is a provocation
     to be asked whether he was sick.  He refused to undergo a
     psychiatric examination.  However, there is a difference
     between real sickness that must be treated and mental insanity
     which leads to corresponding actions, but which is denied by
     the person in question.  You have acted in a very irresponsible
     manner; you led the country to the verge of ruin and you will
     be convicted on the basis of the points contained in the bill of
     indictment.  You are guilty of these offenses even if you do not
    want to admit it.  Despite this, I ask the court to make a decision
    which we will be able to justify later as well.  We must not allow
    the slightest impression of illegality to emerge.  Elena and
    Nicolae Ceausescu should be punished in a really legal trial.
     The two defendants should also know that they are entitled
    to a counsel for defense, even if they reject this.  It should be
    stated once and for all that this military court is absolutely legal
    and that the former positions of the two Ceausescus are no
    longer valid.  However, they will be indicted, and a sentence
    will be passed on the basis of the new legal system.  They are
    not only accused of offenses committed during the past few
    days, but of offenses committed during the past 25 years.  We
    have sufficient data on this period. I ask the court, as the
   plaintiff, to take note that proof has been furnished for all these
    points, that the two have committed the offenses mentioned.
    Finally, I would like to refer once more to the genocide, the
    numerous killings carried out during the past few days.  Elena
    and Nicolae Ceausescu must be held fully responsible for this.
    I now ask the court to pass a verdict on the basis of the law,
    because everybody must receive due punishment for the
   offenses he has committed.

    The final speech of the prosecutor follows:

 PROSECUTOR: It is very difficult for us to act, to pass a verdict
    on people who even now do not want to admit to the criminal
    offenses that they have committed during 25 years and admit
    to the genocide, not only in Timisoara and Bucharest, but
    primarily also to the criminal offenses committed during the past
    25 years.  This demonstrates their lack of understanding. They
    not only deprived the people of heating, electricity, and foodstuffs,
    they also tyrannized the soul of the Romanian people.
    They not only killed children, young people and adults in
    Timisoara and Bucharest; they allowed Securitate members to
    wear military uniforms to create the impression among the
    people that the army is against them.  They wanted to separate
    the people from the army.  They used to fetch people from
    orphans' homes or from abroad whom they trained in special
    institutions to become murderers of their own people.  You
    were so impertinent as to cut off oxygen lines in hospitals and
    to shoot people in their hospital beds.  The Securitate had hidden
    food reserves  on which Bucharest could have survived for
    months, the whole of Bucharest.

      Whom are they talking about, Elena asks.

   PROSECUTOR: So far, they have always claimed that we have
      built this country, we have paid our debts, but with this they
      bled the country to death and have hoarded enough money to
      ensure their escape.  You need not admit your mistakes, mister.
      In 1947, we assumed power, but under completely different
      circumstances.  In 1947, King Michael showed more dignity
      than you.  And you might perhaps have achieved the understanding
      of the Romanian people if you had now admitted your
      guilt.  You should have stayed in Iran where you had flown to.

      In response, the two laugh, and she says: We do not stay
   abroad.  This is our home.

   PROSECUTOR: Esteemed Mr. Chairman, I have been one of
      those who, as a lawyer, would have liked to oppose the death
      sentence, because it is inhuman.  But we are not talking about
      people.  I would not call for the death sentence, but it would
      be incomprehensible for the Romanian people to have to go on
      suffering this great misery and not to have it ended by
      sentencing the two Ceausescus to death.  The crimes against the people
      grew year by year.  They were only busy enslaving the people
      and building up an apparatus of power.  They were not really
      interested in the people. [Picture is cut off.]

      After an outage of transmission of Romanian television, the
   speaker announces the verdict in the trial of Elena and Nicolae
   Ceausescu is the death sentence.  All their property will be impounded.