Traian Basescu collaborated with the Securitate, yet decision not final

Bucharest Court of Appeal admitted on Friday the action started by the National Council for the Study of the Securitate Archives (CNSAS) and decided that former President Traian Basescu collaborated with the communist-era secret police known as the Securitate.

The decision is not final.

At the final term of the trial on September 5, Traian Basescu stated that he was not a collaborator of the former Securitate.

Traian Basescu mentioned that he did not know he was allotted a secret name, emphasizing that his reports are signed "Captain Traian Basescu".

"I didn't know I was given a codename. I did not sign a commitment where a codename could have been established. (...) I didn't know that Military Counterintelligence was the Securitate. I thought it was a service of the Ministry of National Defence," he defended himself.

He mentioned that the students at the civilian section of the Navy Institute did not have an interdiction to contact foreign citizens, to have relations with them outside the professional scope. He recalled that in the summer, as students, they would go to Mamaia [Black Sea resort], where they'd meet youths from Czechoslovakia. "The Romanian ships operated in all of the worlds' ports and in the commercial section students were familiarized to have contacts with foreigners. (...) I never considered that these relations of ours with Czech students could be condemned. We didn't hide, because nobody forbid it," Basescu mentioned.

"The law forced me to answer (...) In what regards punishments, when you are a military student you can be expelled," Basescu said, mentioning that he gave two notes to counterintelligence officer Tudor.

The documents submitted to the court by the CNSAS show that Basescu had a contact officer designated by the former Securitate, with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel, and that he gave two handwritten informative notes.

According to the CNSAS, during his collaboration with the Securitate, Traian Basescu provided information denouncing activities against the totalitarian communist regime, such as the intention to leave abroad and relations with foreign citizens, existent in the notes given on 05.05.1975.

"Analyzing the information put forth by the defendant, we believe that they target restricting the right to private life (art. 17 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights) and the right to freedom of movement (art. 12 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights)", the CNSAS claimed.

According to the Council, following one of the informative notes given by Traian Basescu regarding a colleague, the Securitate gave a negative notice for the latter's departure on a Romanian ship that would go abroad.