羅馬尼亞維持對一名罪犯20年徒刑的原判

Romanian appeals court has upheld a 20-year jail term for a man who ran a notorious communist-era prison and was convicted of crimes against humanity.

The Bucharest High Court on Wednesday rejected an appeal from 90-year-old Alexandru Visinescu, who was convicted in July 2015. He ran the Ramnicu Sarat prison for political detainees, where all prisoners were kept in solitary confinement, could not speak to each other, and were starved and beaten.

Visinescu's lawyers said he was only obeying orders and did not break the law.

Supporters of the ruling say it sets an important precedent for communist-era crimes. Besides Visinescu, the only other person who has been charged with crimes against humanity from Romania's brutal Soviet Bloc days is dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, who was tried and executed in 1989.羅馬尼亞一家上訴法庭維持了對一名男子20年有期徒刑的原判。此人因爲曾經管理一所臭名昭著的監獄而被判犯有反人類罪。

布加勒斯特高等法院星期三駁回了90歲的亞力山大·威西奈斯庫提起的上訴。威西奈斯庫2015年7月被定罪，他曾經是關押政治犯的拉姆尼庫·薩拉特監獄的負責人。在那裏，犯人被單獨監禁，彼此不許說話，而且要忍飢挨餓，遭受毒打。

威西奈斯庫的律師說，他當時只是在服從命令，並沒有違反法律。

判決的支持者們說，此項判決爲審判罪案樹立了一個重要的先例。除威西奈斯庫之外，羅馬尼亞前蘇聯集團時期僅有的另外一位被指控犯有反人類罪的人是獨裁者齊奧塞斯庫。他在1989年被審判並處決。