Ceausescu spouses remains, exhumed

A medical team from the Institute of Legal Medicine in Bucharest is exhuming on Wednesday the remains of Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu, executed during the Romanian revolution in 1989.

The medical doctors are to take biological samples and send them to the laboratory for DNA testing. Husband of Zoia Ceausescu (Ceausescus' daughter) Mircea Operan will be present on behalf of the family.

The family's only son alive, Valentin Ceausescu and Mircea Oprean started this process, willing to find out if the remains in Ghencea graveyard belong to Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu.

In 2009, Valentin Ceausescu and Mircea Oprean managed to become owners of the tombs, now having the right to require the exhumation of remains after seven years have passed, as provided by the law which bans the exhumation of corpses under that period.

Initially, Valentin Ceausescu and Mircea Oprean have sued the Ministry of National Defence and the institution was ordered by the court of justice to identify the burial places of Ceausescu spouses. However, the Ministry of National Defence failed to comply with the judges decision.

Agerpres