Military deployment in Bucharest in December 1989. Photo: Denoel Paris and other photographers – “1989 Libertate Roumanie” by Denoel Paris/Wikimedia Commons

Romanian military prosecutors investigating for the fourth time the bloodshed that occurred during the 1989 uprising that ousted communist leader Nicolae Ceausescu on Wednesday indicted a former television news anchor for crimes against humanity.

Investigators said Teodor Brates helped spread false information that led to deaths and violence during the December 1989 uprising that followed Ceausescu’s ousting.

Brates, who was deputy editor-in-chief of the news department of the Romanian Public Broadcaster TVR in December 1989, was summoned by prosecutors on Wednesday to officially receive the notification of his indictment.

Charges say he coordinated the TVR broadcasts on December 22-24 1989, when anti-communist protesters took over the studios of the broadcaster.

Brates went live on television to announce that “terrorists” were shooting at people and that “water has been poisoned.”

The indictment says Brates was “the main factor disseminating fake news, meant to create diversions, thus highly contributing to forming the terrorist psychosis which affected Romania’s entire population (both military and civilians).”

Brates came to the prosecutor’s office but refused to answer any questions from journalists.

Military prosecutors indicted Romania’s former president Ion Iliescu on Tuesday for crimes against humanity during the violent uprising in December 1989.

In the indictment they claim that, as initiator and coordinator of the commanding unit of the uprising, which comprised both political and military members, Iliescu approved military moves that were seen as diversions designed to create panic among the people and which allegedly led to numerous deaths.

The former president also refused to comment on the indictment.

Also on Tuesday, military prosecutors also indicted the former commander of the Air Force in 1989, General Iosif Rus, as well as Admiral Emil Dumitrescu, who was a captain at the time.

Rus will stand trial for allegedly giving orders that confused the security forces and led to a bloody fight at Bucharest International airport between the army and forces of the intelligence service. The battle on December 23, 1989 left 48 dead, including 40 soldiers, and 15 wounded.

Rus also allegedly ordered the repainting of some of the air force helicopters to replace the logo with different shapes, which also led to confusion and more fighting between security forces and the army.

Dumitrescu, who was part of the commanding groups that occupied the Romanian broadcaster, has been charged with spreading false information about alleged terrorists shooting at the people.

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