Dogs been silent a long time:
"Romania puts ex-communist prison chief on trial" Associated Press September 25, 2014
BUCHAREST, Romania — A former Romanian prison commander appeared in court Wednesday to face charges of torture and causing the deaths of 12 political prisoners in the nation’s first trial of the head of a communist lockup.
Alexandru Visinescu, who ran the Ramnicu Sarat prison from 1956 to 1963 and is charged with crimes against humanity, was in court but did not take the stand, listening attentively to the proceedings.
Visinescu, who turns 89 this week, told the Associated Press earlier the court would have to prove that his actions led to the prisoners’ deaths. He denied wrongdoing.
About 500,000 Romanians were condemned as political prisoners in the 1950s as the nation’s Communist government sought to crush all dissent. The widow of one former political prisoner asked the court for $132,000 in moral and financial damages for her husband, General Ion Eremia, who was imprisoned for writing a book that criticized communist leaders. He died in 2004. Valentin Cristea, the last survivor of the prison where Romania’s political elite were incarcerated in isolation cells, told the AP the trial was late but important.
‘‘It stirs my soul with bad memories. He won’t recognize anything, won’t remember anything,’’ Cristea said by telephone.
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Related: Despite recent study, region’s waters still flush with dogfish
"1,000 arrested in EU crackdown on organized crime" | AP September 25, 2014
THE HAGUE — In what a police chief called the biggest organized crime crackdown in Europe, law enforcement agencies across the European Union arrested more than 1,000 people in a closely coordinated nine-day sweep.
Operation Archimedes targeted almost all kinds of crime ranging from drug trafficking to illegal immigration, tax fraud, counterfeiting, and theft, Europol director Rob Wainwright told reporters.
The operation involved 20,000 law enforcement officers in more than 300 cities, ports, airports, and border crossings. They made 1,027 arrests and saved 30 Romanian children from being trafficked. It also netted large amounts of drugs including hundreds of kilograms of cocaine and heroin, Wainwright said.
The operation ‘‘has led, I think, to a very significant attack on the whole criminal infrastructure in Europe,’’ Wainwright said.
He added that intelligence gained in the operation will lead to future arrests.
The raids underscored how criminals across the European Union and beyond are organizing their efforts, often using heavily encrypted Internet messages to communicate.
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