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*Attempting to flee the country using over $1 billion deposited in foreign banks.|image=[[File:Crop-Nicolae Ceaucescu 1978.jpg|110px]] [[File:Elena Ceausescu.jpg|110px]]|Image_Caption=Nicolae Ceaușescu (left), President of the [[Socialist Republic of Romania]] from 1974, also General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party since 1965, and his wife Elena Ceaușescu (right), were executed following trial on 25 December 1989.|name=Trial of the Ceaușescus|sentence=[[Capital punishment in Romania|Death]]|convicted=Nicolae Ceaușescu and Elena Ceaușescu|date=25 December 1989}}
'''The trial of Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu''' was held on 25 December 1989 by an Exceptional Military Tribunal, a [[drumhead court-martial]] created at the request of a newly formed group called the [[National Salvation Front (Romania)|National Salvation Front]]. Its outcome was pre-determined, and it resulted in [[guilty verdict]]s and [[Capital punishment in Romania|death sentence]]s for former [[President of Romania|Romanian President]] and [[Romanian Communist Party]] [[General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party|General Secretary]] [[Nicolae Ceaușescu]], and his wife, [[Elena Ceaușescu]].<ref name=daysthat>BBC ''[[Days That Shook the World]]'' Season 3, Episode 8, "The Road To Revolution: The Execution of Ceaușescu/The Iranian Revolution"</ref> The main charge was [[genocide]]. Romanian state television announced that Nicolae Ceaușescu had been responsible for the deaths of 60,000 people;<ref>{{Cite news |last=Harden |first=Blaine |date=December 26, 1989 |title=CEAUSESCU, WIFE REPORTED EXECUTED AFTER TRIAL |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1989/12/26/ceausescu-wife-reported-executed-after-trial/b9ae62da-bf1b-4630-ac66-a9e38fa9870f/ |access-date=2023-07-09 |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]}}</ref> the announcement did not make clear whether this was the number killed during the [[Romanian Revolution]] in [[Timișoara]]<ref name="reuters1990">{{cite news |url=http://articles.latimes.com/1990-01-28/news/mn-1255_1_senior-officials |title=4 Top Ceausescu Aides Admit Complicity in Genocide: Romania: They are the first senior officials of regime to go on trial before a military court. The four are said to have confessed to all charges |work=[[Los Angeles Times]] |date=28 January 1990 |agency=[[Reuters]]|access-date=16 October 2013 |location=Bucharest, Romania}}</ref><ref name="Quigley2006">{{cite book|first=John B.|last=Quigley|title=The Genocide Convention: An International Law Analysis|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZXZ8qMR5YVQC&pg=PA38|year=2006|publisher=[[Ashgate Publishing]], Ltd.|isbn=978-0-7546-8029-1|page=38}}</ref><ref name="Schabas2000">{{cite book|first=William|last=Schabas|title=Genocide in International Law: The Crimes of Crimes|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pYptuRHDQPgC&pg=PA392|year=2000|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-78790-1|page=392}}</ref> or throughout the 24 years of Ceausescu's rule.
Nevertheless, the charges did not affect the trial. General [[Victor Stănculescu]] had brought with him a specially selected team of paratroopers from a [[crack troops|crack regiment]], handpicked earlier in the morning to act as a [[firing squad]]. Before the legal proceedings began, Stănculescu had already selected the spot where the execution would take place: along one side of the wall in the barracks' square.<ref name="Burakovski273"/>
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==Execution==
The Ceaușescus were executed at 4:00 p.m. local time<ref name=gua27dec>{{cite news|title=Television shows last hours of the 'anti-Christ'|url=https://www.theguardian.com/century/1980-1989/Story/0,6051,110504,00.html |access-date=30 March 2013|newspaper=[[The Guardian]]|date=27 December 1989}}</ref> at a military base outside [[Bucharest]] on 25 December 1989.<ref name=nyt23apr>{{cite news|title=Ceausescu Wept as He Faced Firing Squad, Footage Shows|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/04/23/world/evolution-in-europe-ceausescu-wept-as-he-faced-firing-squad-footage-shows.html|access-date=30 March 2013|newspaper=The New York Times|date=23 April 1990|agency=[[Associated Press]]}}</ref> The execution was carried out by a firing squad consisting of paratroop regiment soldiers: Captain Ionel Boeru, Sergeant-Major Georghin Octavian and Dorin-Marian Cirlan, while reportedly hundreds of others also volunteered.<ref name=theday23janu>{{cite news |title= 120 bullets found in Ceausescus |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=gAghAAAAIBAJ&pg=2040,4327503 |access-date=30 March 2013 |newspaper= The Day |date=23 January 1990}}</ref> Before the execution, Nicolae Ceaușescu declared, "We could have been shot without having this masquerade!"<ref name=impreuna /> The Ceaușescus' hands were tied by four soldiers before the execution.<ref name=els23dec>{{cite news |last= Elsner |first= Alan |title= Trial and Execution: The Dramatic Deaths of Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu |url= https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trial-and-execution-the-d_b_401497 |access-date=30 March 2013 |newspaper=Huffington Post|date=23 December 2009}}</ref> [[Simon Sebag Montefiore]] wrote that, before the sentences were carried out, Elena Ceaușescu screamed, "You sons of bitches!" as she was led outside and lined up against the wall, while Nicolae Ceaușescu sang "[[The Internationale]]".<ref>{{cite book |last= Sebag Montefiore |first= Simon |title= 101 Villains from Vlad the Impaler to Adolf Hitler: History's Monsters |year= 2008 |publisher= Metro Books |isbn=978-1-4351-0937-7 |page=274}}</ref>
The firing squad began shooting as soon as the two were in position against a wall. The execution happened too quickly for the television crew assigned to the trial and death sentence to videotape it in full; only the last round of shots was filmed. In 2014, retired Captain Boeru told a reporter for ''[[The Guardian]]'' newspaper that he believes that the shots he fired from his rifle were solely responsible for the deaths of both of the Ceaușescus, because, of the three soldiers in the firing squad, he was the only one who remembered to switch his [[Kalashnikov rifle]] to fire fully automatic, and at least one member of the group hesitated to shoot for several seconds.<ref>{{cite news |last= Graham-Harrison |first= Emma |title= 'I'm still nervous,' says soldier who shot Nicolae Ceausescu |url= https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/07/nicolae-ceausescu-execution-anniversary-romania |access-date=13 June 2019 |newspaper= The Guardian|date=6 December 2014}}</ref> In 1990, a member of the National Salvation Front reported that 120 bullets were found in the couple's bodies.<ref name=theday23janu/>
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