Romanian court frees leader of miners riots that led to government overthrow News
Romanian court frees leader of miners riots that led to government overthrow

[JURIST] A Romanian court Tuesday freed the militant leader of the Mineworkers Confederation of Romania, a man who led the 1991 miners' riot that overthrew Romania's first post-communist government. Miron Cozma [Open World Conference of Workers backgrounder] had served seven years of his eighteen year jail sentence when former President Ion Iliescu [Wikipedia profile, in Romanian] granted him a pardon last December, which he retracted two days later [BBC report] due to public outrage. Cozma had appealed Iliescu's retraction, winning in what the ruling centrists called a surprising decision, especially due to the 15 year anniversary of similar miners' riots which occurred from June 13 to 15 in 1990. Reuters has more.