TWENTY-ONE YEARS after their death, the remains of former Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife, Elena, have been exhumed from their graves.
The remains will be DNAÂ tested to see if they really are those of the Ceausescus, after family members called for verification of the identities.
Ceausescu, who was the secretary general of the Romanian Communist Party, ruled the country from 1965 until his government was overthrown by a revolution in 1989. He had attempted to stifle public discontent through a system of secret police.
The couple were executed in December, 1989, after being sentenced to death by a military court. The couple had been trying to flee from Bucharest when they were captured.
Ceausescu’s son-in-law, Mircea Opran, told Romanian reporters that he wasn’t sure what would happen if the remains are discovered not to belong to Nicolae and Elena. “Probably we will sue the Romanian state,” he said.
