Nicolae Pleșiță

Nicolae Pleșiță (; April 26, 1929 – September 28, 2009) was a Romanian intelligence official and secret police investigator. From 1980 to 1984, he led the Foreign Intelligence Service of the Securitate, the secret service of Communist Romania. He was described by the New York Times and Associated Press at the time of his death as "a die-hard Communist and ruthless chief of the Securitate secret police."

A participant in various actions taken against armed or peaceful anti-communist groups, Pleșiță began his career as a Romanian Communist Party cadre, and rose through the ranks of the Securitate while holding various political offices in the Interior Ministry. Personally involved in the brutal interrogation of dissidents such as Paul Goma, and allegedly the person masterminding several attacks on the Romanian diaspora, he is most remembered for his connections with the Venezuelan terrorist Carlos the Jackal. He arranged for Carlos to be sheltered in Romania after the bombing of Radio Free Europe and was accused, but eventually found innocent in a Romanian court, of complicity in the bombing. After the successful 1989 Revolution, Pleșiță was also noted for openly admitting his various involvements in acts of violence, and for claiming that they were justified by circumstance.

Biography

Early years and activities against the armed resistance

Pleșiță was born in Curtea de Argeș, a town in Argeș County, southern Romania. According to Gheorghe Florescu, a black marketer of coffee and memoirist who met Pleșiță during communism, the future general had exceptionally lowly origins, being "the son of a farm hand with a two primary classes education and an illiterate peasant woman, who hailed from a family of outlaws in Târgoviște area." A worker at the Moroieni Lumber Factory in his native city and head of the industry's trade union by the age of 18, he joined the Communist Party in 1947, the year when the communist regime was set up, and became active in party affairs. The honours he received included the Star of the People's Republic of Romania Order

In August of that year, he was credited with helping to stifle coal miners when unrest from the large-scale miners' strike in the Jiu Valley threatened the Ceauşescu regime's grip on society. At least 600 miners were interrogated; 150 penal dossiers were opened; 50 were forcefully hospitalised in psychiatric wards; 15 were sentenced to correctional labour and actually imprisoned, while a further 300 or more (who were considered dangerous) were internally deported. Almost 4,000 of the striking workers were sacked. Eight or nine persons were injured in the RFE bombing. Such accounts further reported that Pleșiță rewarded Carlos with $400,000 deposited in an account at the Romanian Bank for Foreign Trade under the name of Carlos's lover and partner.

In November 1984, Pleșiță was deposed and appointed commander of the Grădiștea teacher training school for the Ministry of the Interior. Press reports noted that he was receiving some 6,000 lei (around 2,000 Euros) or over per month. In the 1990s, former Securitate agents stated that the Soviet KGB had charged the Securitate with "infiltrating France." Pleșiță also said Ceaușescu had directed at least 250,000 British pounds

Pleșiță died in September 2009 at age 80, after spending three months in a Bucharest sanatorium allegedly run by the Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI). He had suffered from several illnesses, including diabetes, but the cause of death was given as complications from a concussion. During his funeral service, held at the Capu Dealu Romanian Orthodox church in Curtea de Argeș, the SRI, obeying the family's wish, is said to have prevented reporters from witnessing the event. Intelligence Service spokespersons denied that the institution had overseen either Pleșiță's hospitalisation or his funeral.