ILIE MATEI, PRIM-SECRETAR AL JUDEŢULUI TIMIŞ (1985-1989), VICTIMĂ SAU CĂLĂU ÎN DECEMBRIE 1989?
ILIE MATEI, FIRST-SECRETARY OF THE TIMIȘ COUNTY R.C.P. ORGANIZATION (1985-1989). VICTIM OR BUTCHER?

Summary/Abstract: Ilie Matei was born on April 13,1932, in Ganeasa village from Olt County. His job as a trainer-informer helped him to rise in the schools of the party where his profession and his social origin were very important. Thus he became a devoted Party activist, having a rapid ascent in the leading structures of the R.C.P. (Romanian Communist Party). From his function of instructor at the Regional Committee of Communist Youth from Oltenia (1956-1957) he was promoted to high positions in the 1980s: propaganda secretary in Braila, then first-secretary of the Timis County Committee of the Party from 1985 until November 3, 1989. Matei’s appointment as leader of the Timis county was not welcomed by the people living in the Banat region. Ilie Matei was perceived as a tough communist apparatchik and, at the same time as a brutal person, without knowing the culture, the spirituality and the mentality of the people living in Banat. The beginning of people’s revolt in Timisoara against the dictatorial regime led by Nicolae Ceausescu, found Ilie Matei in the same city. He was a part of the political commandment established inside the Timis County Party, having the purpose of stopping the people’s revolt. On December 22, 1989, Matei came back to Timisoara where he was seized by the military and officially arrested on January 6, 1990. He was sent to trial and sentenced to 15 years of prison in 1997.

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