Dumitru Mazilu

Dumitru Mazilu (born 24 June 1934) is a Romanian politician.

In 1952, he graduated from the Technical School of Engineers in Bacău.

The same year, he became a security officer and was promoted to the rank of lieutenant.

In 1959, he graduated from the University of Bucharest with a law degree, obtaining a Ph.D. in the same field in 1964.

As Mazilu studied for his Ph.D., he worked as a professor of law at Ștefan Gheorghiu Academy in Bucharest.

From 1965 to 1966, Mazilu served as director of Securitate in Băneasa.

From 1965 to 1968, Mazilu was responsible for investigating abuses and irregularities committed during the regime of Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej.

In the 1970s, Mazilu's academic career further expanded.

In 1970, he was established as a university professor by the Ministry of Education.

In the years 1970–1974, he was the scientific director of the Institute of Political Sciences in Bucharest.

In 1974, he gained attention from American universities such as Harvard, Columbia, and UC Berkeley.

This attention from foreign institutes solidified Mazilu's position in Romanian diplomacy.

This led to Mazilu's appointment as a legal adviser at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In 1985, Mazilu became involved in discussions of human rights and of the youth of the world.

At this point in time, expectations that Mazilu wrote a report critical of the situation of human rights in Romania.

Nicolae Ceaușescu was informed by the secret services that Mazilu intended to publish the report.

Ceaușescu forbade Mazilu to leave the country to prevent him from presenting the report to the United Nations Organization.

The report detailed Ceaușescu's policy of exporting the majority of Romania's food, and lowering living standards to quickly pay off foreign debts.

This was the case especially for those who lived near the construction site of Ceaușescu's planned palace who were forcefully placed into hastily constructed apartment blocks that lacked electricity and running water, when in contrast, Ceaușescu lived in extravagant wealth.

Mazilu furthered criticized Ceaușescu's agricultural policy of destroying traditional farming centers in an effort to modernize Romania's farming industry with the introduction of more modern agricultural centers, claiming that this compromised peasant farmers as their farms were seen by Ceaușescu's administration as "breeding (grounds) of bourgeois liberalism that still (perpetuate) forms of private property".

From 1986 to 1989, Mazilu was placed under house arrest as a result of his criticisms of Ceaușescu's handling of human rights.

As a result of Mazilu's critical report of Human Rights in Romania, he was formally fired from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1987 and his diplomatic passport was withdrawn, preventing him from attending UN meetings.

In May of the same year, Ceaușescu had a letter written to the UN which claimed that Mazilu had suffered a heart attack and was seriously ill.

Mazilu wrote a letter to the Secretary-General of the United Nations stating that he had been hospitalized twice, being forced to withdraw from a summit on 1 December 1987, stating that he would not withdraw his report.

The next year, the UN Subcommission to request Mazilu's release.

In response, Ceaușescu stated that Mazilu's detention was in accordance with Romanian law and that placing Mazilu on the diplomat list was redundant due to his illness, thus denying the requests of the UN.

He had a key role in the events of the Romanian Revolution of December 1989 and in exposing the human rights abuses of the Ceaușescu regime.

Mazilu was born in Bacău.

However, despite being under house arrest, Mazilu was able to publish a clandestine report in Geneva in April 1989.

The report was published by the United Nations in July of the same year.

This report was similarly critical, stressing conditions of extreme hunger, cold, and fear in Romania.

Despite repeated attempts by the UN to free Mazilu, he remained under house arrest.

In September 1989, four diplomats from the embassy of the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, the United States of America and Canada were prevented by the Securitate to visit Mazilu.

Several radio stations including the BBC, Deutsche Welle and Radio France Internationale brought attention to the situation.

The United Nations eventually decided to take the situation to the International Court of Justice in the Hague.

The subsequent hearing was held in October 1989 and in December 1989, Decision No 81/15 demanded that the Romanian authorities release Mazilu immediately and was voted upon unanimously, underling that Mazilu was to enjoy the diplomatic immunity of the United Nations as provided by Article 22 of the UN Convention on the privileges and immunities.

On the night of 21 December, in the midst of the Romanian Revolution, Mazilu was moved to prison along with his wife and son by the Securitate.

The following day, after the Ceaușescu regime was overthrown and Mazilu and his family were released.

The same day, Mazilu gave a speech at the government building now occupied by the National Salvation Front led by Ion Iliescu detailing his opposition to Communism.

According to the Report Armageddon VII of 2004, it is claimed that Mazilu had been dismissed from the management of the Securitate as a result of an attempt to falsify documents relating to a car accident.