Speaking on a television show Tuesday evening, retired general Victor Atanasie Stanculescu said that several cassettes containing the truth about the revolution of 1989 have been destroyed by his wife, upon his request, according to Antena 3 news channel. He said he had made the gesture ‘so that it will be peace in the country.’ Prior to his release, he had maintained that the said cassettes were kept abroad. The former General also denied allegations he would have furnished information in exchange for his release. Stanculescu was released from the Jilava penitentiary on Tuesday, after the Bucharest Military Tribunal ruled to set him free for one year so that he can take care of his medical problems. In the wake of his release from jail, Stanculescu said he had never believed things would come to this. ‘I had two options: to walk free, or to stay here indefinitely, to be taken to cemetery,’ he said, according to Antena 3. Asked about the detention conditions, Stanculescu called them ‘bearable, yet not for my age.’ Former President Ion Iliescu believes that Stanculescu’s release is a good thing, as the General has merits in the Romanian Revolution, and called his sentencing a ‘great injustice’, Mediafax reports. He also said Stanculescu did not play an active role in Timisoara and cannot be reproached anything in that respect. ‘I consider his sentencing unfair. As far as I know, and is known, he played no role whatsoever in Timisoara,’ Iliescu said.
