Romania's former president Ion Iliescu urged thousands of miners to crack down on protesters, in 1989 | ROB ELLIOTT/AFP/Getty Romanian ex-president charged over crackdown Ion Iliescu accused of orchestrating miners’ attacks on anti-government protesters.

Ion Iliescu, the first president of Romania after the fall of communism, is being prosecuted for crimes against humanity during a bloody crackdown on anti-government protesters in 1990.

Six months after the fall of the communist regime in 1989, Iliescu urged thousands of miners to come to Bucharest while anti-government protesters, most of whom were students, were gathered in the city’s University Square. Between June 13 and 15, the miners descended upon Romania’s capital, beating up protesters and trashing the headquarters of two opposition parties, in what has become known as the mineriad.

Four people died and three were shot and wounded on June 13, and around 1,000 people were beaten up and detained on June 14 and 15, prosecutors at the High Court of Cassation and Justice said in a statement Wednesday.

Iliescu met the prosecutors Wednesday morning, ostensibly to be officially informed of the case against him, according to the Romanian press agency Mediafax. He did not make a statement.

Iliescu, 85, served three terms as Romania’s president: two between 1990 and 1996, and a third between 2000 and 2004.

The head of the Romanian intelligence service at the time of the mineriad, Virgil Măgureanu, also met with prosecutors Wednesday, Mediafax reported. More people are expected to follow suit in the coming days. Military and civilian prosecutors have been investigating the mineriad since 1997, according to Mediafax.

Miners descended en masse on Bucharest four times in 1990 and 1991. They also tried to reach the capital in January 1999, to protest against the government’s decision to close down mines, but they were stopped on the way.