Ilie Ilașcu

Ilie Ilașcu (born 30 July 1952 in Taxobeni, Făleşti district) is a Moldovan-born Romanian politician, famous for being sentenced to death by the separatist Transnistrian government for alleged involvement in two murders and for actions which have been described as Moldovan state-sponsored terrorism by Transnistrian government officials.

Political activity

Born in Taxobeni, Făleşti district, Ilașcu graduated from the Faculty of Economic Studies of the Agricultural Institute in Chişinău. He is married to Nina and they have two daughters, Tatiana (b. February 28, 1980) and Olga (b. July 1, 1984). Ilie Ilașcu worked as chief economist at "Dnestr" Research Institute in Tiraspol. Ilașcu became known for his opposition against Moldovan Communist Party politics regarding Moldovan language, openly advocating the usage of Latin script and recognition of Moldovan-Romanian identity, as well as giving the status of official language for Moldovan.

His opponents nicknamed him "glavnîi extremist" (chief extremist) instead of "glavnîi economist" (chief economist). In January 1989 he was one of the founders of a Moldovan association in Tiraspol. On July 9, 1989 he was arrested for the first time, being released with excuses after few days. Also in 1989 he was dismissed from his job, but was able to regain his position after appealing to the prosecutor office. On September 5, 1989 as he spoke at a meeting in Tiraspol in favour of the language laws passed by the Moldovan parliament, he was taken away by policemen, who needed to protect him from the crowd of political opponents.