Gelu Voican Voiculescu

Gelu Voican-Voiculescu (born February 8, 1941, in Bucharest, Romania) is a Romanian politician and former dissident who served as deputy prime minister in the provisional government of Romania (1989–1990). He was also a senator of Buzau in the 1990-1992 legislature, elected on the lists of the National Salvation Front, as well as ambassador to Tunisia and Morocco.

Life in Communist Romania
Gelu Voican-Voiculescu is a member of the Sturdza family and a descendant of Michel Sturdza, foreign minister in the national-legionary government. He graduated from "I.L. Caragiale" Highschool from Bucharest in 1957 and enrolled at the Petroleum Research Institute of the Faculty of Geology, from which he was expelled in 1959 being considered "a reactionary". His expulsion took place in the context created by the wave of repression against youth, which followed the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. He was incriminated for wearing a cross around his neck and making non-figurative, modernist painting.

After his expulsion, he worked for a year as a probationer at the Bucharest Forage Company, after which he was allowed to re-register at the Faculty of Geology of the University of Bucharest, whose courses he graduated in 1963, obtaining the diploma of geologist engineer. After graduating from the faculty, he worked for 3 years as an engineer in Videle, after which he transferred as a researcher to the Institute of Geological Research for Hydrocarbons where he worked until 1970.

In 1970, he was arrested and investigated for violating state security through treason of service secrets and economic espionage, being considered a dangerous agitator among young people. Gelu Voican argued as true reasons for his arrest that he was involved in the students' demonstration on Christmas Day 1968, being related to Ana Șincai, who led this demonstration. He was released from prison after three months without a conviction due to lack of evidence.

With the help of some friends, he was hired as a proofreader at the magazine Viața Româneasca where he worked until 1973, when he was allowed to work as a geologist at a design workshop within IPROMIN, the main mining design institute in Romania. Although the institute was disbanded in March 1974, the geotechnical workshop where Voican worked remained in Bucharest in the form of a branch belonging to other institutes in the area. Here he worked on the elaboration of geotechnical studies of the Rosia-Poeni mining objective.

In July 1985 he was arrested again and sentenced to 1 year and 6 months in prison on the basis of article 166 of the Criminal Code at that time - „propaganda against the social order“, being accused of broadcasting anti-communist manifestos. Subsequently, according to his own confessions, Gelu Voican Voiculescu was also the actor of a common law process, being accused of cheating at the expense of the public had by falsifying some statements and appropriation of money for some trips. The alleged reasons for his arrest are, according to Gelu Voican, the fact that he owned copies of dozens of books on topics related to esotericism and the initiatory aspects of secret societies.

He carried out his sentence at the special section of the Rahova penitentiary, despite the reduced punishment, being released after only one year following an amnesty. During October 1988-August 1989, the Securitate bodies raided his home several times and confiscated his „books and letters“.

Romanian Revolution and after
Gelu Voican Voiculescu actively participated in the events during the Revolution of December 1989. He participated as a delegate of the National Salvation Front, along with Victor Atanasie Stănculescu and Virgil Măgureanu, at the trial of Nicolae Ceaușescu on December 25, 1989, and at the execution of the communist leader. He also took care of the burial of the Ceausescu spouses.

After the Revolution of December 1989, he served as deputy prime minister in the first provisional government and in charge of the control of secret services (28 December 1989 - 28 June 1990).

By a decree signed on December 26, 1989, by Ion Iliescu, the Department of State Security was included in the Ministry of National Defence. On December 31, 1989, immediately after the arrest the Securitate head Iulian Vlad and his close associates, National Salvation Front Council chairman Ion Iliescu appointed Gelu Voican Voiculescu, at that time deputy prime minister in the Provisional Government, as commander of the former "structures "Department of State Security".

Starting January 2, 1990, Nicolae Militaru, together with Gelu Voican Voiculescu, coordinated the takeover by MApN of the Securitate, passing to the analysis of its organizational chart and to the creation of future information structures of Romania. They were based on Security personnel and logistics. Until March 1990 (when the Romanian Intelligence Service was established), Gelu Voican managed the former Securitate archive.

Following the elections of May 20, 1990, he was elected senator de Buzau on the lists of National Salvation Front. As a senator he was part of the Validation Committee. He resigned from the Romanian Parliament on March 19, 1992.

In 1994, Gelu Voican was appointed as ambassador in Tunisia by President Ion Iliescu. He was recalled from office two years later, after declaring that he could not represent abroad the new president, Emil Constantinescu.

After the elections in November 2000, Voiculescu returned to diplomacy. He was accredited as ambassador of Romania to Morocco. He returned to Romania in January 2005, after the end of his term as ambassador.

For a period of time, he held the position of first vice-president of the Organisation for the Defence of Human Rights.

Controversies
Former Securitate Officer Liviu Turcu stated in a November 2006 interview on the show "Marius Tuca Show" at Antena 1 that "in the final phase of the events of December 1989", Gelu Voican Voiculescu took a team of armed soldiers "under extremely delicate and uncertain conditions" and he put up a military unit of the Foreign Intelligence Service, urging them to give him the network of Romanian informers from the West. Turcu also mentioned Gelu Voican Voiculescu the famous „Turcu list” of the dignitaries who collaborated with the Securitate, stating that there is an information at the Bucharest branch of Securitate about it. Voican defended himself by stating that Liviu Turcu wants to compromise him as an active „participant in the 1989“ revolution, adding that he was not a collaborator of the Securitate, and he had no ties with it.

On June 13, 2017, he was indicted alongside Ion Iliescu, Petre Roman, Virgil Magureanu and Miron Cozma for crimes against humanity, in the case of June 1990 Mineriad. The trial was suspended during the declared state of emergency following the COVID-19 pandemic. On December 10, 2020, the court decided to restart the case.

In 2019 he was indicted alongside Ion Iliescu and Petre Roman for alleged crimes against humanity, in the Revolution File.