(29 Mar 2017) A Romanian court on Wednesday upheld the 20-year sentence of a former prison commander for the deaths of 103 political prisoners while he was in charge of a communist-era labour camp.
The High Court of Cassation and Justice rejected the appeal of Ion Ficior, 88, who has denied wrongdoing and said he was merely following orders.
Ficior was convicted of crimes against humanity.
He daughter-in-law said that he was suffering from Alzheimer's and didn't understand what was happening.
"This morning he asked me: what do they have against me? Why do they have to arrest me? He doesn't know anything anymore. You come to arrest a man after 60 years, what for? He doesn't even know what this punishment is for," she told journalists.
Police arrived at his home near the Gara de Nord railway station.
They handcuffed and detained Ficior and escorted him to a car.
He was commander at the Periprava labour camp from 1958 to 1963.
During his trial, former detainees accused Ficior of beatings, a lack of food and medicine, overwork and unheated cells.
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