Doina Cornea, a Romanian anticommunist dissident who was beaten and arrested after criticizing the destruction of Romanian villages and churches during the regime of Nicolae Ceausescu, died Thursday. She was 88, says BostonGlobe.com.
Her son, Leontin Juhasz, said Ms. Cornea died at her home after a long illness.
Ms. Cornea, a French professor at Cluj’s Babes Bolyai University, sent her first letter protesting the communist regime to Radio Free Europe in 1982 and went on to send dozens of similar letters, attracting the attention of the Securitate secret police. She was fired from the university in 1983 after her daughter smuggled an open letter to France in which she was critical of Ceausescu.
Along with her son, Ms. Cornea was arrested in 1987 after releasing manifestos in support of a workers’ uprising in the city of Brasov.
Ms. Cornea, a member of the Eastern Rite Catholic Church, received several awards, including one from Pope John Paul II in 2003, The Cross of the Royal House of Romania and the French Legion of Honor for civil merits.
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