PART II

REVISION OF THE 1940 REVISION TRIAL OF CORNELIUS Z CODREANU

After the conclusions of the Prosecutor General, First President Lupu gives the floor to lawyer Alexandru Vergatti.

Lawyer Vergatti attacked the political aspect of the 1938 trial, saying that what had been introduced in the files had nothing to do with the real case: 'I honestly confess that at the moment when we have to show before you the reasons why we are asking for the trial of the Captain, I cannot do so without trying in my heart to think of the one who gave his life, the one who went for a truth, a truth that we all serve and profess. And I cannot do that, Mr. President and Your Honour, because if we were to try to judge this simple trial, as it would seem to follow from the rigid text of the law, we would ask nothing more of you than a change of perspective, we would ask that in a trial, which has had a certain perspective, you pronounce a judgment which would give it another perspective. We ask for it - we do not anticipate the Court's decision.

"But that is not our intention. Because, Mr. President and Your Honour, the Captain's trial has acquired the value of a truism, for those who have no interest in either the substance or the extent of these truths.

In this trial, they did not judge whether or not the person is really somebody, they did not concern themselves with that letter which the Honourable Commission says was ignored, they did not concern themselves with these things; they concerned themselves with something else entirely, namely, what the Captain lives on, whether or not the Captain is clever, they concerned themselves with whether or not he speaks well, whether or not he is a good speaker at public meetings; they did not concern themselves with whether or not the truths he was telling have national, authentic value.

Then, gentlemen, we are obliged today to explain honestly and with all the strength that our faith, our peace of mind, our confidence in you gives us, to explain legally why, when the Captain's trial was held, a mistake was made.

This trial, born before a military tribunal, had a source: the misunderstanding of truths professed by a man, the misunderstanding of truths, which were current, but unacceptable to them.

At the moment when he was put on trial and it was said that an organization perpetrated by Capitan was of a certain color, this was not said out of the bad faith of those who knew full well that this organization was of a totally different character from that which they had inscribed in the files which you have, but it sprang from something else, from the non-acceptance of the new instructions of the State, such as were shown in the circulars which were issued by Capitan. The lawsuit started because C.Z. Codreanu issued a circular. It was decided to suspend the Constitution and to deprive all the people of all their rights. And then C.Z. Codreanu issued a circular saying that:

"So we are thrown out of the ratio of Law, into the ratio of Force.

But we don't get this one.

We understood to act within the law, manifesting our beliefs, If we cannot do this and if any manifestation of belief, the reason for the existence of our party has ceased.

We don't want to introduce force.

We don't want to use violence.

We have enough experience from the past, when we were unwillingly drawn to violence. To any violence, we do not respond in any way. We endure. And even when the entire Romanian nation is treated like a herd of mindless animals.

We don't want to stage a coup.

By the very essence of our conception, we are against this system.

It means an attitude of abruptness, of an external nature, while we expect our victory from the development in the soul of the nation of a process of human perfection.

We will not use these means, because the youth of today is too deeply rooted in the consciousness of its historical mission and of its responsibilities to do rash acts that would turn Romania into a bloody Spain.

Our entire generation sees well the gauntlet that has been thrown to it.

The thrown gauntlet will remain down.

We refuse to pick it up".

Then, gentlemen, these things upset all these people, the moment it was decided to disband the political organisations and to take action, all these people were upset, who, not accepting the principle, thought in the depths of their souls of putting them on trial, the thought of being put on trial for the facts that we are going to tell you began to arise in their minds.

All these people found themselves in front of a new circular from the Captain, a circular which, as he says at the very end of the circular, he addresses to the Ministers of the Romanian Country. (It is the Open Letter addressed to Vaida Voevod). Advocate Vergatti quotes from these circulars a series of passages from which the unfoundedness of the accusations against Corneliu Zelea Codreanu can be deduced, and then continues:

Gentlemen, Justice is not made for sending to trial. Justice is made to do justice; it is not a mere mechanical instrument, it is human conscience, acting within the text of the law.

In this trial there has been constant talk of public order, there has been talk of the merits of this trial, that it must be judged as it has been judged, not because it is a normal trial, because it is an abnormal trial in which public order has been violated.

It was an issue that we do not want to repeat before you, because we could be wrong. We do not want to place ourselves in this field of public order, neither then nor now, because then as now we could not speak of a legal public order.

There is only one public order, not the form it takes, but its true structural form. One cannot try to blackmail people's consciences by using terms that have no place. There was constant talk in that trial of a breach of public order and no articulation of how and in what way public order is being breached."

Aspects of the trial

Alexandru Vergatti notes that the trial had two aspects: one, as explained above, of a political nature "which arose from the misunderstanding, from this non-acceptance of the truth, of the political principles set out by Corneliu Zelea Codreanu". And a second aspect, of the treason of which Corneliu Zelea Codreanu was guilty.

"The form of treason is taken by the 6 circulars that Mr. Prosecutor General has exposed, circulars that led to the legal indictment, for the reason that at the top of them, these acts bear the word "secret".

But simply reading them shows that this secrecy - in other words, inherent to the security of the State - on the part of the authorities from which these documents emanate, cannot appear secret by the apostille of "secret", but by their content. It is very easy for an institution, which has the possibility of making a document secret, to give it this title; but the title is not important, the nature of the document must be secret.

That is why I believe that it is impossible under any circumstances, not only today, but neither then nor at any other time in this process that must go down in history, to discuss anything other than the inanity of these acts, which can have no other character than that justice cannot be done.

I, personally, concluding my exposition, ask you to do justice: to remove from your conscience and attitude of "Magistrate" all the peace and all the pride of the definitive justice of this nation. I ask you, gentlemen magistrates, to free us from all the doubts that have spoiled our youth and our struggles in prison. We ask you to do justice, to give the line to honesty, to give free rein to the uninfluenced and honest attitude, to spread in the country all the attitude of your personality, as you have done throughout your career as "Magistrates".

I can only read to you the words of the Captain, found on a tab in this file, words which the Captain, a visionary of mythical proportions, wrote on March 13, 1938: "After every crucifixion, there follows a resurrection; after every resurrection, a fall of the unjust judges. Please be sure that we will rejoice together on the day of resurrection, for all our enemies have the power to crucify us, but not the power to stop the resurrection which follows every crucifixion."

We ask you to do justice, through the resurrection of the struggle of Romanian youth".

Advocate Horia Cosmovici's plea

President Dimitrie Lupu gives the floor to Advocate Horia Cosmovici. Cosmovici begins his plea, explaining that this trial has judged the turmoil of a generation, which was embodied in the doctrine of Corneliu Zelea Codreanu and other thinkers of the Legion.

"High Court, you are judging the turmoil of a generation: of a generation of faith.

When I say 'generation,' I do not mean a number of years; just as when I use the words 'youthful' or 'youthful' or 'young,' I do not mean the color of hair. Because we have always had elders and the white-haired experience, who have defended and guided our steps. Our generation, like our youth, is a matter of attitude of soul. The youngest man in France at one time was Clemenceau . And in the Legionary Movement the youngest man in hard times was General Cantacuzino-Granicerul.

Today, when we have taken on a responsibility that is beyond the possibilities of many, in this country we find through a source that has always defended us, the advice and experience of a man who helps us, protects us and defends us with all the prestige of his person.

High Court, what is the Legionary Movement?

It is the first revolution of the Romanian nation. The first revolution that is coming true.

We have had attempts in the past of our history, but none of them has been fulfilled. This is explained by the twofold point of view, that our revolution is a spiritual revolution and secondly, that it is our own revolution, closely linked to all that is Romanian, to all that has lived on this land.

The legionary revolution has not turned its eyes anywhere to catch and draw the line of the future of the Romanian nation. It turned to Mihail Kogalniceanu, to Eminescu, to Conta, to all these men of our past, who were the forerunners, at a time when the question was not even raised in Europe.

What does this Legionary Movement essentially represent?

One of the friends we lost, a great Legionary figure, Puiu Gârcineanu, shows it to us in a book, as we Legionaries can write, when we felt more than we thought, entitled "From the Legionary World". Please remember Puiu Gârcineanu and at the same time surround him with my other good friend, with whom he always got along, lordache Nicoara, and respected by the old fighters. Only someone who is not a legionnaire, or perhaps out of some unfounded pride, could speak easily of these two men.

High Court, we are the only movement that intertwines the faith of the Orthodox Church with a political movement.

Legionnaireism is primarily faith in God, in the purest sense, in the sense of our Christian faith.

The Legionary movement can be defined by a single phrase: it is a gigantic struggle, a struggle of enormous tensions, to strive towards the perfection and sublimity shown to us by the Christian church line. This movement makes the inner transformation, the change of man, an essential condition for this nation to be able to move forward on new paths. You cannot have the right to ask others to straighten up, unless you first try to straighten up yourself".

next av. Horia Cosmoyici explains what role the belief in the resurrection from the dead, a resurrection taught by the Christian church, plays in the legionary doctrine.

He then discusses the political programme of the Movement, from which he draws out the seriousness of the Jewish problem and the plague of politicanism in Romania's public life, relying on numerous quotations from the Captain's works.

Regarding the Legion's methods of struggle, Cosmovici shows that they were not inspired by the principle of violence in order to seize power. On the contrary, even in the first days of the founding of the Movement, Corneliu Zelea Codreanu declared that he would act exclusively within the framework of the laws of the country: 'We will go along the lines of the laws of the country, not provoking, avoiding any provocation, not responding to any provocation'.

Corneliu Zelea Codreanu demanded revenge and punishment for all those guilty of the country's disaster. But how? Not by solitary and uncontrolled actions of revenge, but by legal process. Here is what it says in paragraph 84 of the Charter of the Head of the Den: "The first point of the Legionary program, if anyone asks you, tell him that it is the oath for punishment. The day after the legionary victory, the exceptional Tribunal will be constituted, which will call before it and judge:

All the looters of the public purse.

All those who received bribes, facilitating business.

All those who, in violation of the fundamental laws of the country, have persecuted, killed, struck at legionaries or their families.

Whatever office they hold, from gendarmes to ministers, no one will escape this judgment."

Corneliu Zelea Codreanu was always concerned with legality, even when his legionaries were subjected to unspeakable tortures and illegalities and when reactions could be foreseen, when suffering reached the limit of despair, as happened in certain cases. His watchword was permanent: obedience to the laws and patience in the face of the greatest injustices.

From this perspective, Horia Cosmovici shows how absurd was the accusation of attempting civil war, thrown at the Captain during his trial.

With the help of Corneliu Zelea Codreanu's last statements and circulars, he shows how concerned the Head of the Legion was that there should be no disturbance in the country, even when its inhabitants were stripped of all their rights by the coup d'état of King Charles II. He realised the misfortune that would befall the country if the Romanians were to fall out among themselves, while enemies were lurking abroad.

Horia Cosmovici concludes his plea with the following words:

"High Court, I am at the end.

I wrote a booklet entitled "The truth in the trial of Corneliu Zelea Codreanu" in May 1938. I wrote this booklet during the persecution - as we call it, followed by the agents, I wrote it in different houses, partly at my home, partly at Alex. Ghica, another part at Ion Boroianu's, then at Danielopol's house. I shared it with everyone so they could know the truth in the Captain's trial.

I have only two things here that are mine. I will refer only to one of them, because, in the High Court, my sincere conviction is that I am so far from considering myself, from considering myself a man capable of dividing the destiny of the nation, that I can see it; but I have a belief of my own and this belief I serve to my last breath.

Well, you will see that I have succeeded, I who, I told you, am far from perfection - I am far from the Legionary line by thousands of metres - I have succeeded in being a prophet. Don't let the world be surprised: I was honest when I wrote - and all legionaries know it, it's something that can be controlled... I was writing:

'When a judgment is right, no one judges, but when a judgment is wrong, then everyone judges. That is why the trial of Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, lost before the military court, continues before the Tribunal of the country and the sentence remains to be given". Nobody believed in the Legionaries' victory when I wrote this - "and it is not known on which side the traitors will be and on which side the patriots".

High Court, my conclusions today I drew then, in 1938.

Today I do not know to what extent I have succeeded in presenting to you the whole turmoil of our generation up to this point.

High Court, I ask you in front of a tomb, today open again, of the Captain, to accept that we, the Legionaries, have the possibility, through you, to snatch from this tomb for the Romanian Country one more victory, the prestige of justice.

Please give it to us, otherwise we could not live".

The debates being closed, the Court entered into deliberation. At 7 p.m., the High Court of Cassation, in its plenary session, entered the courtroom with the following decision:

The memory of the Captain has been restored

"The Commission, according to Decision No. 1/940 given by the Commission for the Revision of Political Trials and to Decree-Law No. 3226/1940 art. 4 and art. 506 of the Criminal Procedure, decides:

Declares the sentence of the military tribunal, Section I-a, of the Corps II Army Bucharest, concerning the deceased Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, null and void and rehabilitates his memory.

Orders the publication of this decision in the Official Gazette, at the expense of the Ministry of Justice, and in a newspaper in the Capital, at the request of Mrs. Elena Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, wife of the Captain".

WHO judged?

The highest figures of the country's judiciary: the First President of the High Court of Cassation, surrounded by four presidents of the Supreme Court's divisions.

WHERE did he judge?

In the Supreme Forum of Justice".

The retrial of the Captain's case was heard in the sitting room of the United Sections of the High Court of Cassation. The panel was composed of the following high magistrates:

Dimitrie Lupu, First President of the High Court of Cassation.

Dimitrie Cihodariu, President of Section I.

Mihail Mosgos, President of Section II.

Constantin Macri, President of Section III.

Titu Magheru, President of Section IV.

The chair of the Public Ministry was occupied by Coman Negrescu, Prosecutor General at the Court of Cassation.

Filip Mihailescu, First Magistrate, Counsellor at the Court of Appeal, acted as Secretary of the Trial Commission.

Alexandru Vergatti and Horia Cosmovici sat on the defence bench. Mrs Elena Zelea Codreanu, as civil party, is represented by lawyers Vergatti and Cosmovici.

In the courtroom were present, besides the Captain's wife, Mrs. Elena Zelea Codreanu, the following persons: Mrs. Liana Cotiga (wife of Traian Cotiga, assassinated in September 1939), Av. Ilie Gârneata, av. Corneliu Georgescu, Eng. Blanaru (Commanders of the Annunciation), colonel Stefan Zavoianu, av. Traian Cristescu, Dr. Serban Milcoveanu (president of the UNSCR in 1937-1940), Fr. Udristeanu (the Captain's confessor), Metropolitan Gurie, Eng. Virgil lonescu (collaborator of the Captain), Vasile Mailat (mayor of Blue Sector III), George Axinteanu, Eng. Tinta, eng. Scarlatescu and representatives of the Romanian and foreign press.

THE RETRIAL OF THE 19 LEADING LEGIONARIES IN JULY 1938

The government of the Carlist dictatorship was not satisfied with the condemnation of the Captain, but after his sentence had become final, by rejecting his appeal on 17 June 1938, it sent to trial for identical reasons and shortly afterwards also 19 leaders of the Legion.

The Legion leaders, sent to trial, were interned in the prison camp in Miercurea Ciuc, when the order came to transport them to Bucharest, to appear before the same Military Court, the First Section of the Second Army Corps, which also sentenced Capt. Obviously, after the members of the Military Tribunal had no scruples of conscience to execute the order from the Palace, unjustly condemning Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, they could be even less impressed by the protests of innocence of the Captain's collaborators.

On 25 June 1938 the trial of the Legion's leaders began and ended on 1 July with the conviction of all the accused en bloc, with only the years of imprisonment varying in their sentences. Vasile Cristescu and Alexandru Cantacuzino received the highest sentence, 9 years in prison, because they had escaped from the escort when they were transported by train from Miercurea Ciuc to Bucharest, and the rest from 7 years to one year.

The Commission for the Review of Political Trials and Punishment of Guilty Magistrates also dealt with the case of the 19 leading Legionaries, sentenced on 1 July 1938.

Decision No. 4 of 21 November 1940

The Commission was composed of Messrs:

President: Mr Stefan P. Mihaileanu, Counsellor at the High Court of Cassation and Justice.

Members: Mr. Vasile Butureanu, Counsellor at the High Court of Cassation and Justice.

Constantin Navârlie, Counsellor at the High Court of Cassation and Justice.

Alexandru Otelesteanu, University Professor.

Vintila Dongoroz, University Professor ,

Commission: Taking into consideration the way the political trial concerning 1) Vasile Cristescu, 2) Alexandru Cantacuzino, 3) Alexandru Cristian-Tell, 4) Gheorghe Istrate, 5) Mihail Polihroniade, 6) Paul Craja was judged, 7) Traian Cotiga, 8) Sima Simulescu, 9) Virgil lonescu, 10) Banica Dobre, 11) Furdui Gheorghe, 12) Clime Gheorghe, 13) Serban Milcoveanu, 14) Nicolae Totu, 15) Radu Budisteanu, 16) ApostolescuGh. , 17) Serafim Aurel, 18) Eugen Ionica, 19) Priest Nicolae T. Georgescu-Edinetl, which form the files 895 and 900 of 1938, of the Military Tribunal of the Army Corps, Section I-a, trial solved by sentence No. 503 of July 1938, which became final by not using the means of reform by the first two and by the rejection of the appeal of the other defendants by the Military Court of Cassation and Justice, which took place by Decision with No. 416, of 26 July 1938, of that Court, as well as the appeal against the latter decision, based on the lack of jurisdiction of the military courts to try them for the acts for which they were sent to trial, which took place by Decision No. 4591, of 7 October 1938, of the High Court of Cassation and Justice, Section I, as well as on the unconstitutionality of Article 128, paragraph 3 of the Code of Military Justice, which took place by Decision No. 125, of 30 March 1939, of the Joint Sections of the same High Court, sentence by which the first two were sentenced, in absentia, to 9 years' corrective imprisonment, 120,000 lei fine and 6 years' corrective prohibition, the next two up to and including the 15th, to 7 years' corrective imprisonment, 20,000 lei fine and 6 years' corrective imprisonment, the next three to 5 years' corrective imprisonment, 20. 000 lei fine and 6 years correctional prohibition, for the crime of incitement against the social order, provided for and punished by art. 209 point l of the Penal Code, original wording, and the crime of participation in a prohibited political organization, provided for and punished by art. 23 paragraph l and art. 30 of the Law for the Defence of State Order, and the latter to one year of correctional imprisonment, for the crime of participation in a prohibited political organization, provided for and punished by art. 23 paragraph l and art. 30 of the Law for the Defence of State Order.

Noting that according to Article 1 of the Decree-Law No. 3326 bis of 3 October 1940, criminal trials for offences of a final political nature tried within the last eight years may be reviewed.

According to Article 27 of the Criminal Code, political offences are those which the legislator punishes with political penalties, as well as those which, although punishable by a common law penalty, have this character due to the circumstances in which they were committed or because of their motive, in which case the court is obliged to substitute the common law penalty with the appropriate political penalty, within the scale of penalties established by Articles 22 and 23 of the same Code.

Since in the present case, the acts for which the above-named were convicted are political offences, having this character in view of the motive which determined the acts charged and which was political, as one which, as shown in the recitals below, tended towards the political propaganda of the party and its organisation in view of the time of that propaganda, by placing it at the helm of the State, this trial is among those for which a review may proceed by virtue of that Decree-Law.

Considering that according to Article 2 of the same Decree-Law, the review of criminal trials of a final political nature, judged during the last eight years, may be admitted, except in the cases provided for by the criminal procedure, for 1. Violation of the right of defence; 2. Wrong establishment of the facts; 3. Wrong application of the law.

Considering that from the examination of the judgment and the decisions that intervened in the case, as well as the acts of investigation and the other documents in the file, it is established that the trial was carried out with l. Violation of the right of defence; 2. Incorrect establishment of the facts and 3. Incorrect application of the law, according to Article 3326 bis, of 3 October 1940, the review is to be admitted.

For these reasons, by virtue of the law

DECIDES :

Admit in principle the review of the political trial concerning 1) Vasile Cristescu, 2) Alexandru Cantacuzino, 3) Alexandru Cristian-Tell, 4) Gheorghe Istrate, 5) Mihail Polihroniade, 6) Paul Craja, 7) Traian Cotiga, 8) Sima Simulescu, 9) Virgil lonescu, 10) Banica Dobre, 11) Furdui Gheorghe, 12) Clime Gheorghe, 13) Serban Milcoveanu, 14) Nicolae Totu, 15) Radu Budisteanu, 16) Apostolescu Gheorghe, 17) Serafim Aurel, 18) Eugen Ionica, 19) Priest Nicoale T. Georgescu-Edineti..

(The following is a repetition of the punishments to which each was sentenced by the Military Tribunal as specified at the beginning of the Decision).

- For:

1. Violation of the right of defence.

2. Wrongful establishment of facts and

Misapplication of the law.

We order that the case be referred to the High Court of Cassation and Justice, in accordance with Article 4 of Decree-Law No. 3326 of 3 October 1940.

Dated today 21 November 1940 President: Secretary:

(ss) Stefan P.Mihaileanu PanaitV.Calcâi

Members: Vasile Butureanu Constantin Navârlie Alexandru Otelesanu Vintila Dongoroz

(NOTE: I did not find in the newspapers we have the decision of the High Court of Cassation, which retried the trial of the 19 legionaries and annulled the sentence given by the Military Tribunal, as was done in the case of the Captain. But if the sentence against Capitan was declared null and void, there is all the more reason for the High Court of Cassation and Justice to give the same decision).

What is the significance of the retrial of Corneliu Zelea Codreanu's 1938 trial, the annulment of his conviction and the rehabilitation of his memory by the decision of the High Court of Cassation?

This question was asked by Av. Dumitru M. Ranetescu, in his last article published in the newspaper Buna Vestire, on 5 Dec. 1940.

Ranetescu distinguishes between the spiritual plane of existence, where the Captain cannot be touched by any human smallness, by any wickedness of his contemporaries, dominating with his huge stature the eternal life of our nation, and the historical plane, where this reparation was needed, this decision of the highest judicial court of the country, because "a drop of mud" had caught on the immaculate white of his clothes:

"Today I ask myself: what good can come from stirring up a pain, buried in the land of years? Three days ago, the High Court ruled to annul a judicial monstrosity and to rehabilitate the Captain.

Was it necessary to annul a nullity, to abolish a denial of any idea of justice? Theoretically, yes.

Because on the immaculate white of the vestment of sacrifice and innocence, with which the Captain entered history, a layer of mud was caught. It had to be torn away, because, in the course of future centuries, someone might have been found who could prove, with authority to judge, that there had been a traitor by the name of Corneliu Zelea Codreanu.

How many Jews have not pitied the memory of Jesus by trivializing his miracles and trying to lower him from the height of holiness to the filth of vulgarity, without any other argument than the Talmudic and cunning exegesis of their spirit!

But when should a final sentence be discovered in the archives, damning the Captain?