In Romania, the
people s courts
were first established in 1945 under Law
no. 312 and their
aim was to indict and punish
those responsible for the disastrous state of the country and war
crimes. Indeed, they carried out acts of justice in that many war
criminals were put on trial and convicted.
Two
such courts existed in Romania:
one in the capital Bucharest and another in Cluj, for the crimes
committed by Horthy s regime in Northern Transylvania. Some 2,700
people accused of war crimes were investigated, of whom 668 received
various convictions. The People s Court in Bucharest sentenced 187
people, while that in Cluj convicted 481. The most famous case tried
by the Bucharest People s Court was that of Ion Antonescu, who led
the Romanian state between 1940 and 1944, alongside Mihai Antonescu,
Piky Vasiliu and Gheorghe Alexianu, all of whom were sentenced to
death on 17th
May 1946 and executed. 19 other defendants were convicted to
death in absentia, while