REMEMBRANCE IN TIME - Index of

Elena HELEREA: Homo Juris Professor Alexandru Herlea (1907-1979) 71
The second imprisonment
After being released from prison, in August 1954, Alexandru Herlea worked for a year
as stone carver, the only job he was allowed to take. In the fall of 1955 he became the
chief of the judicial office (a newly established position) of the GOSTAT in Brasov
Region. He would organize this office for which he summoned 17 lawyers, excellent
professionals, most of them former political prisoners. He would later on draft a study for
the Ministry of Agriculture on the real property of the state, adopted by it as the
theoretical ground for territorial organization.
Following the period of imprisonment, Professor Herlea would still be closely
monitored by Securitate, which would do everything in its power to get him in prison
again. It was a necessary condition so that it should justify its existence and keep the
atmosphere of terror in the Country, especially following the Hungarian revolution in the
fall of 1956.
The first attempt to re-arrest Herlea was in the spring of 1958 when Securitate would
ask a clerk of Agricola Bank (Mitan) to declare that he had stolen the 100.000 lei (which
he had forged and for which he would have been sentenced to death, according to the
law), on obeying to Herlea’s order, who was interested in undermining the national
economy. The set-up being too evident (professor Barba, from the Polytechnic Institute in
Brasov, chief accountant, refused to sign the document, finding it too absurd). The
Securitate prepares a different scenario.
Many people are being arrested and they persuade Ilie Piso, a priest from Zărneşti, and
dr. Gogonea from Sibiu to declare that Herlea had organized a activity to overthrow the
existing regime. A group of 18 defenders is set up, having Herlea as leader, Eugen Lazar,
as assistant of the national-peasant party and Malusel, as legionary assistant.
The investigation is led by the Securitate officers Urzica and Alexandrescu, who would
not only employ set-ups, but also torture morally and physically. Both of them would
uncrown their carriers as generals, and benefit from the unfair retirement retribution after
December1989, retribution given to all security officers. One of them, who is still alive
today, still enjoys all these privileges, whereas all former political prisoners would be
given humble financial compensations, on the grounds of the state’s lack of funds.
However, there is enough money to pay for the huge retirement retributions of the
criminals.
But, going back to the trial. Herlea is subject to brutal pressure to force him to declare
that he took action according to Mihai Popovici’s order (one of the main vice-presidents
of PNT), and thus create the proper scenario for a great national trial. Professor Herlea
would not give up, and then, two years later, the trial of the 18- people group started in
Brasov. The prosecutor would ask for a death sentence for Herlea. But the latter would
save a decisive alibi which he would not divulge until the day of the trial, being fully
aware that the Securitate would be able to change everything, everytime. But the file
drafted by Securitate stated that the meeting for the of the counter-revolutionary
organization took place in the summer of 1954, on the priest Piso name day (Saint Elijah
– July, 20 th ) in Zărneşti. Herlea was released from his imprisonement at the Canal, in
August 1954, being in prison on that very day. However, he is sentenced to a 20-year
imprisonment, despite the obvious set-up. Later on, dr. Gogonea, who was in prison with
Herlea (seriously ill at the moment) in Jilava, would revise his false testimony and inform
the prosecution that he had lied concerning Herlea. Still, father Piso refused to take back.