Greater Romania Party (PRM) Senator Dumitru Pop announced on 24 August that the PRM will sue the Romanian state for having groundlessly executed communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife, Elena Ceausescu, in 1989, Mediafax reported.

Pop said that when a military tribunal found the couple guilty, one of the charges stemmed from their attempt to escape from Romania carrying $1 million.

"We want to know what happened to that money," Pop said, adding that Finance Minister Mihai Tanasescu has responded to a PRM inquiry, saying "the money does not exist." If this is so, Pop said, it follows that at least one out of the three accusations leveled against the Ceausescus was false, and this is grounds for the PRM's suit.

The presidential couple was summarily tried and executed on 25 December 1989.

(RFE/RL 25.viii.03)