Radu Filipescu is a former Romanian anti-Communist dissident. He is the youngest son of Zorel Filipescu and Carmelita-Ileana Filipescu. His elder brother is Doru Filipescu, a well known orthopedic surgeon on Sf. Ioan Hospital, in Bucharest. Radu Filipescu is married from 1988 to Daniela Filipescu, anesthesiologist, head of an intensive therapy unit in CC Iliescu Hospital, Bucharest. They have a son, Radu-Zorel Filipescu, born on February 2, 1998.

During dictator

Dictator

A dictator is a ruler who assumes sole and absolute power but without hereditary ascension such as an absolute monarch. When other states call the head of state of a particular state a dictator, that state is called a dictatorship...

 Ceauşescu

Nicolae Ceausescu

Nicolae Ceaușescu was a Romanian Communist politician. He was General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 to 1989, and as such was the country's second and last Communist leader...

's regime he served several years in prison for "propaganda against the socialist order".

Radu Filipescu is the nephew of Victor Groza, brother of Petru Groza

Petru Groza

Petru Groza was a Romanian politician, best known as the Prime Minister of the first Communist Party-dominated governments under Soviet occupation during the early stages of the Communist regime in Romania....

, a communist leader.

Studies and wokplaces

Radu Filipescu graduated the Bucharest Polytechnic Institute, Faculty of Electronics and Telecommunications in 1979. Later he worked at Automatica factory until he was arrested in 1983, and after he was released from the prison, on 1986, at the IEMI factory, as electronic engineer .

Dissident activity before 1989

Radu Filipescu thought that people in Romania were very unsatisfied with Ceausescu's leadership, but in order to prove it they have to be organized. He proposed in leaflets spread in Bucharest that people would take a walk on the streets at a certain hour on Sundays as a protest against the Communist dictator's regime. He made leaflets which he put into people's post boxes in Bucharest. This happened between December 1982 and May 1983. On May 7, 1983 he was arrested, and later sentenced to 10 years in prison. In December 1984 he was Amnesty International

Amnesty International

Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...

's Prisoner of the Month. On April 18, 1986 he was released due to international pressure on the Romanian government, made thanks to his family's efforts to make his case known abroad and by many non-governmental organizations, like The French League for Human Rights (La Ligue des Droits de l’Homme), "Internationale Gesellschaft für Menschenrechte" (IGFM) from the Federal Republic of Germany, "Le Pave" from Switzerland, and the efforts of politicians from Western European countries and United States . He served almost 3 years at Rahova prison, Jilava

Jilava

Jilava is a commune in Ilfov county, Romania, near Bucharest. It is composed of a single village, Jilava.The name derives from a Romanian word of Slavic origin meaning "humid place". Jilava was the location of a fort built by King Carol I of Romania, as part of the capital's defense system...

 prison, and Aiud

Aiud

Aiud is a city located in Alba county, Transylvania, Romania. The city has a population of 28,934 people. It has the status of municipality and is the second-largest city in the county, after county seat Alba Iulia. The Aiud administrative region is 142.2 square kilometres in area.- Administration...

 prison.

In that period there were in jail in Romania about 30 political prisoners : Ion Bugan (convicted at 10 years), Năstasescu Gheorghe (10 years), Lițoiu Nicolae (15 years), Dumitru Iuga (10 years ), Manu Gheorghe (8 years), Ilie Ion (6 years), Costică Purcaru (7 years ), Barabas Francisc (7 years), Barabas Janos (6 years), Borbely Erno (6 years), Olteanu Carol (8 years), Vlăsceanu Florin (6 years), Totu Victor (7 years), Gheorghe Magureanu (6 years ), Gherghina Gheorghe (7 years ), Ionel Nicolae ( 7 years ), Iancu Marin (8 years ). Dragos Oloieru died in prison in 1987, and Arpad Viski, died after he was released in 1986, under suspect circumstances.

In 1987 Radu Filipescu tried to organize a Referendum about the Ceausescu's leadership. As a result on December 12 he was arrested and kept under violent investigation by the Securitate officers. After a fast and strong reaction from Human Rights organizations and foreign radio broadcasters: "Radio Free Europe", "BBC", "RFI", "Deutche Welle", "Voice of America" he was released on December 22 ( 1987 ), without having been indicted.
He was third time arrested on December 22, 1989, being released at noon.

In May 1988, together with other former political prisoners: Gheorghe Nastasescu, Filip Iulius, Iancu Marin, Carol Olteanu, Costica Purcaru, Totu Victor, tried to start a free trade union, called "Libertatea" (Freedom), but due to threats by the Securitate

Securitate

The Securitate was the secret police agency of Communist Romania. Previously, the Romanian secret police was called Siguranţa Statului. Founded on August 30, 1948, with help from the Soviet NKVD, the Securitate was abolished in December 1989, shortly after President Nicolae Ceaușescu was...

 secret police, to those who tried to join the movement, popular support was nor achieved. .

Civic activity after 1989

After the Romanian Revolution of 1989

Romanian Revolution of 1989

The Romanian Revolution of 1989 was a series of riots and clashes in December 1989. These were part of the Revolutions of 1989 that occurred in several Warsaw Pact countries...

, Radu Filipescu found the Group for Social Dialog, being elected its president (in 1998), founding member of APADOR-CH, founder and president of the Association of Revolutionaries Without Privilegies.

Parrot Clip

Radu Filipescu is the inventor of " the Parrot Clip" , a simple but efficient solution challenging the well-known alligator clip. The advantages of the Parrot Clip are an outcome of the new metal tip, which performs the direct contact and the connection with a spring-loaded steel hooked rod. The invention has the PCT/RO 91/00003 patent, the 0563234 European patent, the US no. 5457392 patent. The Parrot Clip was awarded the Gold medal in 1992 at Bruxelles World Fair of Inventions. Actual models are produced by Parrot Invent Company
Radu Filipescu is the author of some other inventions patented and under production at the same company.

Books

Es gibt Dinge, die muss man einfach tun - Der Widerstand des jungen Radu Filipescu ( " There Are Certain Things Which Simply Must Be Done - The Resistance of the Young Radu Filipescu ") - is written after intense documentation in Romania in the period 1990 - 1995 by he German writer Herma Kennel. The book was first printed by Heder Verlag, Germany (ISBN 3-451-04446-3) in 1996.
The book was translated in Romanian and printed by Universal Dalsi in 1998 with the title : Jogging cu Securitatea . A second edition was printed by Polirom publishing house in 2009 with a foreword by Ana Blandiana.

External links

1. Interview with Radu Filipescu in Revista 22 (in Romanian)
2. Radu Filipescu la Institutul de Investigare a Crimelor Comunismului în România
3. http://apador.org/old/indexe.htm
4. Asociaţia Revoluţionarilor Fără Privilegii
5. Parrot Invent test leads and clips