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A Romanian communist-era prison director now in his 80s was was sent Thursday to face trial for "inhumane treatment" of opposition politicians in the 1960s, prosecutors said.
Marian Petrescu, 85, is accused of overseeing an "extermination" regime and "inflicted physical and mental torture" on inmates, mostly opponents of the communist authorities, in the Galati prison in eastern Romania he headed from 1959-1966.
A total of 102 detainees died in Galati under Petrescu, where they were famished, deprived of medical care and heating during the winter and incarcerated in miserable conditions.
He is the third prison director to face prosecution since the collapse of communism in 1989, following legal action brought by the Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes (IICCMER).
Authorities long resisted prosecutions over the dark chapter in Romania's history: in 2006 a first legal complaint filed by the IICCMER against 210 former prison officials was rejected.
Prosecutors finally allowed an IICCMER complaint in 2013 against Alexandru Visinescu, a former prison boss in Ramnicu Valcea in eastern Romania, jailed for 20 years in 2015 on appeal for "crimes against humanity".
Ioan Ficior, former head of the Periprava prison camp also in eastern Romania, was sentenced to 20 years behind bars in early 2016. His appeal is under way.
In all over 600,000 Romanians were convicted and jailed for political reasons under the communist regime between 1945 and 1989, according to the Memorial Museum for Victims of Communism in Sighet in northwestern Romania.
The fiercest repression occurred in the 1950s. The country's communist era came to an end with the fall of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, who had taken power in 1965. In 2007 it joined the European Union along with neighbouring Bulgaria.
