Marius Oprea to sue government

Dear All,

Having been very underhandedly 'got rid of' and then replaced in an institute that he founded himself by the historian he knew would take his place, Marius Oprea is going to sue the Roumanian government - not to get his job back because he is above that, but to make a point. And good for him. I hope he wins. If there's one man we can admire today in Roumania for standing by what he believes, for trying to make sense of the country's history and bring the perpetrators to book, then it's him. He has upset a lot of brass and fatcats and he is a brave, brave man. Marius Oprea should be admired and Roumania should be proud of him...instead, what happens? The courageous work he has done to trace criminals, put ghosts to rest and bury the dead is nothing short of admirable. Bravo and kudos.

Below from Nine O'Clock, the only place I could find info about this in English (I corrected it before posting it - hope noone minds) - well done for printing the article and thank you:

Historian Marius Oprea sues government

07.03.10 | by: Nine oClock | in: homenews

Historian Marius Oprea told news website cotidianul.ro that he plans to sue the government for firing him as head of the Communist Crimes Investigation Institute almost two weeks ago. Oprea said he does not want to sue the government to be reinstated, but to prove that he was fired “in a Stalinist-type act that respects neither the law nor the elementary rule of legal principles.” The government decided to replace Oprea after ordering a merger of his institute with the Institute to the Memory of Romanian Exile. The move came two months after Oprea had repeatedly accused the government of wanting to sack him just because he was a member of the opposition National Liberal Party. Furthermore, he directly accused historian Vladimir Tismaneanu, who headed a presidential commission in charge of probing into communist crimes, of wanting to take his place at the institute by any means. Tismaneanu was indeed named successor to Oprea. “I am not denying that my successors will do a great job, I have a good opinion of Tismaneanu’s professionalism. Only that I never mixed politics and history despite being a member of the PNL,” Oprea told cotidianul.ro.