REVIEW OF THE CODREANU TRIAL (1940)

According to the Decree-Law no. 3226 bis/1940, signed by the leader of the Romanian State, General Ion Antonescu, and published in the Official Gazette of 5 Oct. 1940, Facsimile of the newspaper Buna Vestirese establishes a "Commission for the Review of Political Trials and Punishment of Guilty Magistrates". According to this Decree-Law, the Commission will be able to investigate and send for retrial criminal trials for political offences, tried in the last 8 years.

The first trial to fall under the provisions of the new law was the sentence of 6 months in prison for the outrage of Professor Nicolae Iorga. This trial, as we know, preceded the great trial of May 1938 and served only as a pretext and a cover to allow the government to arrest the Captain, imprison him in Jilava and then sentence him to 10 years in prison.

Consequently, the Revision Commission dealt primarily with the trial for outrage, brought at the request of Professor Iorga.

On 31 Oct. 1940, the Commission issued a decision ordering the retrial of the sentence by which the Captain was sentenced by the Military Tribunal to six months imprisonment on 19 Apr. 1938, for the crime of outrage.

The Revision Commission, having first investigated the outrage trial, concluded that the trial met all the conditions for review. The Commission dealt with the fact of the division that had taken place in the character of Lorga, substituting the journalist and politician for Lorga the minister, who was seeking redress in court for the outrage. The Review Commission made an eminent exposition of the case, for which we take the liberty of reproducing its conclusions:

"In view of the fact that from an examination as a whole of the contents of the letter, summarized above, it appears in essence that Corneliu Z. Codreanu, in the general framework of an exposition of the question of the closure of the legionary shops, shows first that the police organs, following the order of the Minister of the Interior Armand Calinescu, closed the two legionary restaurants at Obor and Liceul Lazar and the colonial shop and then that Professor Iorga, once their advisor on Romanian trade, wrote articles, in which he qualified them as plotters and assassins, in connection with the trade they were doing, is an incorrect, dishonest soul, because it is one thing to have poured into politics and journalism, throwing their innocent souls into the idea that this is the only way to solve the Jewish problem, by taking up trade and doing as they do - and another to do so now, when they would have expected to inform themselves of the man they are judging, not only the agents of the Minister of the Interior.

Given that both from this overview, in which the two ideas are well marked, and from the fact that Cornelius Z. Codreanu points out that the Minister of the Interior Armand Calinescu is the author of the order to close the Legionary shops, and from the fact that he refers to the old advice given by the professor and journalist Nicolae Iorga, whom he says that he unjustly mocked their innocent souls, it is clear that the offense he gives in his letter does not refer to his capacity as a minister, but to that of a journalist politician, it being obvious that the determining reason for a letter sent to prof. Iorga, was the revolt caused by his attacks through the press, in which Corneliu Zelea Codreanu saw only untrue information given by the agents of the Minister of the Interior and articles that could lead to the taking of measures to close the legionary shops.

Given that, if, in the final part, Corneliu Z. Codreanu addresses Professor Lorga and all the others who have taken responsibility for a bloody and unjust oppression, he does so in order to include all the opponents of the Legionary Movement, obviously leaving that part of the contents of the letter, which offends him in relation to the articles in the gazette, separate and by itself.

Corneliu Z. defended himself in this regard. Codreanu in the interrogation that was taken from him and also in this sense were the statements of the witnesses, Prof. Ion Gavanescul and Prof. Nae Ionescu, and Prof. Iorga did not appear in court and there was no other circumstance that would direct the Tribunal to establish the facts differently.

That, in these circumstances, the Military Tribunal, by establishing in fact that the offences were brought against Professor Iorga, in his capacity as a minister and not as a politician and journalist, made a wrong establishment of fact, and, therefore, the trial falls under review on the basis of the reason provided for in Article 3, part 2, of Decree-Law no. 3326 bis of 5 October 1940".

NOTE: Corneliu Zelea Codreanu appeared at the trial and stated that he had replied to the politician and journalist Nicolae lorga, who had attacked him in articles, that he could not be outraged Minister lorga. The latter, on the other hand, did not even want to appear in court, leaving the whole affair to the courts, knowing in advance what the sentence would be. The captain was sentenced to 6 months in prison, without mitigating circumstances, and the verdict was communicated to him on 19 April 1938, while he was incarcerated at Jilava.

On Corneliu Codreanu 30 Nov. 1940, the second trial was held before the United Sections of the High Court of Cassation, and a decision was given to annul the sentence of the Military Tribunal of Bucharest, whereby Corneliu Zelea Codreanu was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment.

According to decision No. 1 of the Special Review Commission, the Captain's trial was sent to the High Court of Cassation for retrial. The trial was held on Saturday, 30 November 1940.

At 9.50 a.m., the Trial Panel entered the courtroom, composed of First President Dimitrie Lupu as the presidents of the four sections. Dimitrie Lupu, after having made the appeal of the civil party, read out the Decision No. l of the Special Review Commission, by which the Captain's case was sent to the High Court of Cassation. The reading of this decision lasted 30 minutes and was listened to in deep silence by the entire audience. After the reading, President Dimitrie Lupu gave the floor to Prosecutor-General Coman Negoescu.

The Public Prosecutor's Office demands the Captain's rehabilitation and the annulment of the sentence

Prosecutor-General Coman Negoescu accepted the conclusions of the Review Commission and addressing the Court said the following:

"You, called upon to pronounce on the merits of the review, taking into account the Commission's research and conclusions, admitting in principle the review, are going to declare the conviction decision invalid and to rehabilitate the memory of the convicted Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, of course making an examination of the decision and seeing if the conviction decision is not maintained on other grounds.

In this case, if one examines the conviction decision, it is clear that it cannot find another basis. Corneliu Zelea Codreanu was convicted of four acts, crimes and misdemeanours. The Commission of admission in principle found that the law was wrongly applied and that the facts were wrongly established. The findings and conclusions of the Commission are imposed before you.

On the basis of these findings and conclusions, since the conviction decision cannot be upheld on other grounds, you should, applying Article 508 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, declare the conviction decision null and void and rehabilitate the memory of Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, thus putting an end to the effects of a decision tainted by error.

These are our conclusions".

Word of Defence

Advocate Alexandru Vergatti's plea