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Bucharest (pte028/17.01.2005/14:10) - A Romanian politician is planning to sue the British newspaper the Financial Times http://www.ft.com for libel after the paper said he had links with the country's former secret police and knew the whereabouts of ex-leader Nicolae Ceaucescu's foreign bank accounts. As the Media Guardian http://www.mediaguardian.co.uk reports, Dan Voiculescu, the leader of the Humanist party and one of the richest men in Romania, is planning to claim1 million dollars (760,000 euros) in damages.
Voiculescu was quoted in the Romanian local daily newspaper as saying "I have already contracted a British lawyer who will represent me in the trial against the Financial Times. Anyone who calls me a secret police officer will be taken to court by me." "I know nothing about Ceausescu's accounts abroad and I have the feeling they do not even exist," he added.
The former Romanian communist dictator was executed in 1989 in a bloody revolution amid widespread speculation that he held bank accounts abroad holding millions of euros. A Romanian newspaper was ordered to pay 5,280 euros after a court found there was no proof to support its claim that Voiculescu was an officer for the Securitate, Ceausescu's secret police force.
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