Ceausescu dictatorial couple exhumed for DNA sampling

Newsroom 21/07/2010 | 18:39

Valentin Ceausescu, the only surviving son of the Ceausescu couple, requested his alleged parents’ exhumation for DNA sampling, so as to establish whether or not they are buried in the Giulesti cemetery.

The general doubt regarding the real location of the Ceausescus’ burial place occurred after the 1989 execution and quick inhumation on December 26^th. At the request of Valentin Ceausescu and Mircea Oprean, Zoia Ceausescu’s husband, in 2008, the Bucharest Appeal Court decided, through an irrevocable and final measure, to force the Ministry of Defense to bring evidence that the Romanian dictator and his wife were buried in the two spots.

The trial was started by Zoia Ceausescu, daughter of the dictator and his wife, five years ago, and was continued by the woman’s husband, Mircea Oprean, and by Valentin Ceausescu, her brother. Local media were not allowed to participate to the exhumation and DNA sampling, because the remaining Ceausescu family members required for the event not to be made public. The results of the DNA tests might take up to six months and are expected to solve the mystery of the real burial place of the Ceausescus, who were buried under different names in 1989 in the presence of Ministry of Defense representatives. If DNA tests confirm the expected identies, Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu will be buried again, at the family’s request, with respect to Christian traditions.