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2d ago

Ion Iliescu’s Casket Lies in State as Romania Prepares State Funeral

A state funeral is scheduled for August 7 following a presidential decree declaring that day a national day of mourning.

Former Romanian President Ion Iliescu gestures during a meeting with foreign media in Bucharest May 17, 2007. REUTERS/Mihai Barbu (ROMANIA)/File Photo
Image
Priests perform a brief religious service next to the coffin of the late Ion Iliescu, Romania's first freely elected president after the fall of communism in 1989, at the Cotroceni Presidential Palace, in Bucharest, Romania, Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2025.(AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
FILE - A man passes by posters of former Romanian President Ion Iliescu, backdropped by the communist-era House of the People, currently the Palace of Parliament in Bucharest Saturday Nov. 25, 2000.(AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda, File)

Overview

  • Former president Ion Iliescu died on August 5 in Bucharest after being hospitalized with lung cancer since early June.
  • His casket was transferred to Cotroceni Palace on August 6 and now lies in state under the tricolor flag.
  • The government has declared August 7 a national day of mourning and will lower flags on official buildings to half-staff.
  • Two ongoing military prosecutions accuse him of crimes against humanity for civilian deaths during the 1989 revolution and the 1990 miners’ crackdown, with no convictions recorded.
  • As founder of the cial DeDemocratic Party, Iliescu steered Romania through three presidential terms and its accession to NATO in 2004 and the EU in 2007, leaving a divisive legacy.