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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>{{cite serial |network=[[BBC Two]] |title=[[Days That Shook the World]] |series=Season 3, Episode 8 |episode=The Road To Revolution: The Execution of Ceaușescu/The Iranian Revolution |date=8 December 2005 }}</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=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-01-28-mn-1255-story.html |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|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200406122514/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-01-28-mn-1255-story.html |archive-date=6 April 2020 }}</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]] |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
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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==Arrest==
On 22 December 1989, during the [[Romanian Revolution]], Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu left the Central Committee building in Bucharest by helicopter toward [[Snagov]], from where they left soon afterwards towards Pitești.<ref>Burakovski, p. 272</ref> The helicopter pilot claimed to be in danger from anti-aircraft fire, so he landed on the [[Bucharest]]–[[Târgoviște]] road, near [[Găești]]. They stopped a car driven by a Nicolae Decă, who took them to [[Văcărești, Dâmbovița|Văcărești]], after which he informed the local authorities that the Ceaușescus were going toward Târgoviște. The Ceaușescus took another car and told its driver, Nicolae Petrișor, to drive them to Târgoviște. During the trip, the Ceaușescus heard news of the revolution on the car radio (by then the revolutionaries had taken control of the state media), causing Ceaușescu to angrily denounce the revolution as a ''[[coup d'état]]''. Petrișor took the couple to an agricultural centre near Târgoviște, where they were locked in an office and later arrested by soldiers from a local army [[garrison]].<ref name="Burakovski273">Burakovski, p. 273</ref><ref name=dem25dec>{{cite news |last=Demian |first=Sinziana |title=In Romania,
==Creation of the tribunal==
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