Gregorian Bivolaru was politically persecuted by communist regime and unjustly sentenced, according to irrevocable ruling of Bucharest Court of Appeal
The Court ruling is a real victory of the truth
Persecutions, torture and denigration of yoga professor Gregorian Bivolaru had no real grounds! He is innocent of all supposed contraventions for which he was tortured and imprisoned.
Tuesday, the 8th of February 2012, the ruling of the Bucharest Court of Appeal has been released, which keeps the result of Bucharest Court of first instance, in the file nr.48765/3/2010. This ruling establishes:
- The political character of Gregorian Bivolaru’s convictions before the Revolution, in 1977 and 1984.
- The political placement of Gregorian Bivolaru in the Psychiatric Hospital at Poiana Mare in 1989.
During the communist period, Gregorian Bivolaru has been arrested, tortured, morally discredited, hardly beaten and has been incorrectly charged with accusations of yoga practicing, including after yoga has been forbidden because it was against the communist regime ideology, which banned any form of human emancipation (moral, spiritual, cultural).
Gregorian Bivolaru “captured” the attention of Romanian Security (Securitate) since 1972, due to his correspondence with Mirce Eliade, and in that year Security has done the first perquisition at the location where he lived then; at that perquisition, Security confiscated from Gregorian Bivolaru many abstracts he has done himself with a lot of work, after studying many books in different libraries in Bucharest, and also it confiscated many books about yoga and paranormal phenomena which he obtained with great efforts. On the same reason, in 1977 Gregorian Bivolaru has been harassed, accused and, in the end, convicted for holding and spreading of obscene material. An example of such “obscene material” confiscated at perquisitions is Julius Evola’s book Sex metaphysics, which was published in Romania, after 1990, by Humanitas publishing house.
The persecution has reached another level of violence in the beginning of the 80’s and was connected to the so-called Transcendental Meditation. On 27th of April 1982, Nicolae Ceauşescu demanded the dissolution of the Institute of Pedagogic and Psychological Research. Due to his participation in the Transcendental Meditation, Gregorian Bivolaru has been kept in arrest for three days, at the Security office on Rahova street. At the end of these three days, before regaining freedom, Gregorian Bivolaru was brought to the chief of the center, col. Gh. Vasile, who warned him about his knowledge that Gregorian Bivolaru was designated the coordinator of Transcendental Meditation and advised him to stop any activity in this direction, or else he would be imprisoned. The ban concerning the techniques realized at Transcendental Meditation was extended by Romanian Security to “yoga and other oriental inspired rituals”.
In that political context, the clear option of Gregorian Bivolaru to continue yoga practice together with his friends has been considered by authorities an activity against the communist regime, a fact which determined that him and others yoga practitioners to be tracked and chased. In Romanian Security documents, Gregorian Bivolaru was called a “fanatic element”, and during the investigations, security agents put pressure on him, beat and tortured him, manifesting a limitless cynicism and cruelty against him, all done in order to obtain certain statements from him.
A surprising event which took place at that time was Gregorian Bivolaru’s escape from the Security lockup, a fact which was an original way of protest against investigators’ brutality and roughness. Gregorian Bivolaru used some capacities which he obtained by yoga practice. When he was investigated in 1984 at Security center, he evaded.
In the Bucharest Prosecutors Office indictment, done in august 1984, it was written that Gregorian Bivolaru had committed some offenses, but by sentence nr.960 from 28th of September 1984, given by Bucharest 4th Court, he was convicted only for escaping jail, at 1,5 years of detention, because for the other offences the amnesty arrived.
During detention, Gregorian Bivolaru had been kept in a special cell, with chains weighting 6-7 kilos at his feet. Subsequently, in 1989, he had been taken to Security lockup, where he had been beaten and tortured, and afterwards sent to Psychiatric Hospital at Poiana Mare, where his complete psycho-mental annihilation has been tried.
He has been saved due to the special courage of his attending physician, who realized that he is not a “psychic patient”, and refused to give him the prescribed treatment.
Towards all these abuses and persecutions, Gregorian Bivolaru asked to be confirmed that the real ground of his convictions and of the abusive placement at Poiana Mare was a political one, these actions being done under Security’s command. The Court acknowledged that this is true and admitted his request.
Here is an abstract of the decision:
“…THE COURT ASCERTAINS THE POLITICAL CHARACTER OF THE CONVICTIONS DISPOSED AGAINST THE CLAIMANT BY THE CRIMINAL SENTENCE NR.68/1977, CRIMINAL SENTENCE NR.980/1984. IT ASCERTAINS THE POLITICAL CHARACTER OF THE MEDICAL PLACEAMENT OF THE CLAIMANT BY CRIMINAL SENTENCE NR.616/1989. THE REQUEST CONCERNING COMPENSATIONS IS REJECTED AS UNFOUNDED. THE DECISION REMAINS FINAL AND IRREVOCABLE.”
After Romanian revolution, Gregorian Bivolaru remained on Romanian Intelligence Services’ list, because of the so-called offenses done during the communist regime. This image has been also taken by the media, which framed him as offender and recidivist. We hope that media will now show this ruling in a correct way and reconsider the calumnies published about Gregorian Bivolaru, based on the false idea that he was an offender, because the convictions before 1989 were in fact a political persecution.
The Sweden Supreme Court, motivating the rejection of his extradition, and some European personalities had rang some bells concerning the modality, deeply scented with Security practices flavor, in which the nowadays Gregorian Bivolaru files ale managed.
This final and irrevocable ruling is a real victory of the truth and it confirms that yoga professor Gregorian Bivolaru had been persecuted by the communist system.
MISA Press Office
February 2012
