Romania disciplines activist who helped publish secret police files

Activist denied access to secret files in Romania

BUCHAREST, Romania — A poet who has led the way in publishing secret police files from Romania’s communist past is being denied further access to the information.

The government says Mircea Dinescu will be removed from the National Council for the Study of the Archives of Romania’s former Securitate secret police because his ownership of two agricultural companies makes him “incompatible” with public office.

But Dinescu told The Associated Press on Thursday that the real reason is to punish him for advocating greater transparency and democracy in Romania and strongly opposing President Traian Basescu’s re-election in December.

Dinescu, who was a dissident under communism, has helped publish files that exposed public figures who had collaborated with the Securitate.