Romanian Ex-President Accused of Working for Securitate

Research institution says documents it has obtained show former president Traian Basescu worked as a young naval officer for the communist secret services – which he has denied.

Former President Traian Basescu reviewing a parade marking National Day in Bucharest in December 2014. Photo: EPA/Robert Ghement

The body in charge in investigating the fearsome secret service of the former communist regime in Romania on Thursday launched court procedures to ascertain whether former president Traian Basescu ever collaborated with the so-called Securitate.

The National Council for the Study of Securitate Archives, CNSAS, based its request to the Appeal Court on documents it has obtained from the Romanian Intelligence Service SRI and the Ministry of Defence.

The research institution works closely with historians and other experts to reveal both those who worked for the former political police, or who it placed under surveillance.

According to the SRI documents, as a young navy student, Basescu was recruited and used as a source by the Securitate from 1972 onwards.

In 1976, when he graduated, they suggest he was taken over by the Securitate office in Constanta, the main Black Sea port.

His file was destroyed in 1979, without being put on micro-film, after Basescu joined the ruling Communist Party, PCR.

According to the CNSAS, his Securitate code name was Petrov. The institution says it found handwritten notes by Basescu, detailing information about his university colleagues and other foreigners he encountered during his naval activities.

The CNSAS says the name of his liaison officer during his time when he collaborated with the Securitate is recorded.

Basescu served two presidential mandates between 2004 and 2014, during which time Romania joined NATO and the EU.

He has dismissed having any connections with the secret police during the regime of communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, claiming the allegations had a political purpose, and were designed to damage his chances in the recent European Parliament elections.

“The CNSAS has entered politics! During the election campaign [for the European Parliament], the CNSAS launched accusations of collaboration [with the Securitate] against me,” Basescu said in response to the news.

He also accused the CNSAS of deliberately leaking documents to the press and of breaking the law.

Basescu opened the electoral list of his centre-right People’s Movement Party in the European elections and was elected as an MEP on May 26.

The CNSAS was established to provide Romanian citizens with the files and documents owned or created by the former Securitate over the years that it operated until the revolution of December 22, 1989. Any citizen can file a request to CNSAS in order to find out if they were under Securitate surveillance – and to find out the name or names of those who provided information about them.