Ilie Ilașcu, the former political prisoner of the Tiraspol regime, died. He was elected, from prison, as a member of the Moldovan and Romanian parliaments
Ilie Ilaşcu, former political prisoner of the Tiraspol regime, ex-deputy in the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova, but also former member of the Romanian Parliament, died on Monday, at the age of 73, according to the Chisinau press.
Ziarul de Gardă writes that Ilașcu will be buried in Bucharest, where he lived.
The death of Ilie Ilașcu was announced, on Monday evening, even by his family, on his Facebook page.
Sentenced to death by the Tiraspol regime
Ilie Ilașcu was born on July 30, 1952, in the village of Taxobeni, Falesti district of the Republic of Moldova. He was one of the founders of the National Liberation Movement in Bessarabia (1988-1992), established in the context in which, at that time, of the more than 200,000 inhabitants of Tiraspol, the capital of Transnistria, 35,000 were of Romanian ethnicity, i.e. about 17%, and who had no school, no kindergarten in Romanian, all 19 educational units in Tiraspol being with teaching in Russian, reports Ziarul de Gardă from Chisinau.
He was president of the Popular Front from Moldova – Tiraspol branch from 1989 to 1992, the year in which the organization was liquidated by the Transnistrian separatist forces. The Popular Front began its activity in the spring of 1989, reaching over 5,000 active members, and after 1990, with the “formation” of the so-called “Republic of Transnistria”, a fierce struggle against the organization was unleashed.
In 1992, Ilașcu participated in the armed battles on the Dniester, as the commander of some special purpose military troops of the Ministry of National Security of the Republic of Moldova. Ilașcu and his special unit fought behind the front and inflicted great losses on the 14th Army of the Russian Federation that came to fight in Transnistria against the Moldovans, notes Ziarul de Gardă.
Between June 2 and 4, 1992, Ilie Ilașcu, Andrei Ivanțoc, Alexandru Leșco, Tudor Petrov Popa, Petru Godiac and Valeriu Garbuz were arrested at their homes in Tiraspol by people wearing uniforms with the insignia of the 14th Army of the former USSR, being accused by the Transnistrian authorities of war crimes and acts of terrorism.
Ilie Ilașcu is the only one who was sentenced to death, but he is also the only one who, being in detention, became a member of the Chisinau Parliament (in the periods 1994-1998 and 1998-2000), then a member of the Romanian Parliament, then a member of the Romanian parliamentary delegation to the Council of Europe.
As a European parliamentarian illegally imprisoned in Tiraspol, the issue of Ilie Ilașcu and his Group was discussed at the highest European forums and, after 9 years of detention, he was released.
Ilie Ilașcu later settled in Bucharest, was a Romanian senator for a while, after which he retired from public life, leading a modest life, writes Ziarul de Gardă.
The message of the presidential advisor Eugen Tomac
MEP Eugen Tomac, honorary advisor for the relationship with Romanians everywhere of the Romanian president Nicusor Dan, sent a message on Monday on the death of the former political prisoner from Tiraspol. In his message, Tomac states that Ilaşcu was sentenced to death because he defended the Romanian language with dignity in front of the Russian tanks.
“Smooth way to the Lord of the Romanian patriot Ilie Ilaşcu! He was sentenced to death because he defended the Romanian language with dignity in front of the Russian tanks. He was not afraid for a moment of Moscow's threats, he defied them and fought for the union of the Republic of Moldova with Romania even when everything seemed lost. May God welcome him into His kingdom!”, wrote Eugen Tomac in a post on Facebook.
Elected senator of Romania and decorated by Iliescu
On September 29, 2000, Ilie Ilaşcu became a Romanian citizen.
The legislation of the Republic of Moldova did not allow dual citizenship. As a result, Ilie Ilaşcu submitted a request to the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova in which he expressed his desire to withdraw his mandate as a deputy in the legislature from Chisinau, a request that was approved, during a special meeting, on December 4, 2000. The citizenship and pardon commission of the Presidency of the Republic of Moldova also approved, on December 23, 2000, the request for the withdrawal of citizenship submitted by Ilie Ilaşcu.
While still in prison, he was elected senator of Bacău on the lists of the Greater Romania Party (PRM) in the November 26, 2000 election.
On May 5, 2001, Ilie Ilaşcu was released from Tiraspol prison. On May 9, 2001, the two Chambers of the Romanian Parliament met to welcome Ilie Ilaşcu. The meeting was opened by Ilie Ilaşcu himself, who declared: “All these years I felt your support and that of the entire Romanian people, for which I want to thank you very much.”
On the same day, the president of Romania at that time, Ion Iliescu, decorated him with the National Order “Star of Romania” in the rank of knight.
On August 2, 2010, the members of the “Ilașcu Group” were also decorated by the interim president of the Republic of Moldova, Mihai Ghimpu, with the “Order of the Republic”.
