BUCHAREST -- Former Romanian President Ion Iliescu -- one of the most influential but also controversial political leaders of postcommunist Romania -- died in Bucharest on August 5. He was 95 years old.
The former president had been hospitalized since June 9, with doctors diagnosing him with lung cancer.
In a statement, the government announced Iliescu's death "with deep regret" and sent its condolences to his family and friends.
Both adored and repudiated, Iliescu was one of the most controversial politicians in the period of democracy that followed the December 1989 overthrow of longstanding dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.
Iliescu had been a government minister before being sidelined by Ceausescu in the early 1970s. In December 1989, he presented himself as a dissident against the Ceausescu regime and emerged as leader of the National Salvation Front, a group that took control of the country after Ceausescu and his wife were deposed and executed.
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In May 1990, he became Romania's first freely elected president, serving until 1996. His term, however, was marred by the bloody transfer of power, where 862 people were killed, and his decision to mobilize striking miners to violently suppress anti-government protests in June 1990, in what many regarded as a tactic to hold onto power.
In 2018, he was charged with crimes against humanity for his role in those violent events. The case stalled several times, but in 2023 the Court of Appeals ruled that the trial could proceed.
In his second term in office, from 2000 to 2004, Iliescu played a significant role in advancing Romania's accession to the European Union. Under his presidency, Romania also signed the NATO accession treaty in 2004, with the country joining the military alliance shortly before he left office.
When announcing Iliescu's death, the government said details regarding the former president's state funeral will be released in the coming days. August 7 has been declared a day of national mourning in Romania.
