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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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