Bucharest (Romania), 5 August (LaPresse/AP) – Ion Iliescu, Romania's first freely elected president after the fall of communism in 1989, has died at the age of 95. The hospital in the capital Bucharest, where Iliescu had been hospitalised since 9 June, announced today that he died at 3.55 p.m. local time after doctors “did everything possible to provide him with the necessary care and treatment”. In 2019, he underwent heart surgery and in June he was diagnosed with lung cancer. The Romanian government also confirmed his death and expressed its condolences to the family and loved ones of the former president. It added that it would soon announce plans for a state funeral. Iliescu, who held de facto military authority during the anti-communist uprising, took power after the execution of communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife Elena on 25 December 1989. More than 1,100 people died during the uprising, 862 of them after Iliescu took power. For this, he was later accused of crimes against humanity. He repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. Re-elected twice, in 1992 and 2000, Iliescu had largely retired from public life in 2017.
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