1) According to Amnesty International, those who attempt, or make preparations to cross Romania's borders without official permission face prosecution under article 245 of the criminal code, which states:

Entering or leaving the county by fraudulently crossing the border is punishable by six months' to three years' imprisonment. Attempt to fraudulently leave the country is penalized. The procurement of means or instruments, or the taking of certain measures which manifest a persons' intention to fraudulently cross the border are also considered as attempts. [Amnesty International, Romania: Human Rights Violations in the Eighties, (London: Amnesty International Publications, 987), p. 18.]

Amnesty International, in the 1987 report entitled Romania: Human Rights Violations in the Eighties, further mentions that in some cases Romanians who have reached Yugoslavia have been returned to Romania before they could avail themselves of the protection of the UNHCR. [Ibid., p. 20.] In the one specific case detailed by Amnesty International, a Romanian man, Nicolae Malan, was arrested by the Yugoslav police and returned to Romania in August 1985. He was sentenced to fifteen months' imprisonment for having illegally crossed the border. [Ibid.] Amnesty International also claims that the Romanian authorities have applied for the extradition on ordinary criminal charges of people who have left the country. [Ibid.] Amnesty International specifically mentions the case of one person who was extradited from Yugoslavia in this manner, but charged under Article 245 (mentioned above) and sentenced to one years' imprisonment. [Ibid.] For further information on the application of Article 245, please consult the attached pages 18-20 of the Amnesty report.

2) An article which appeared in the French publication Libération, dated 14 July 1989, notes the treatment accorded two Romanian poets who appeared in the Western Press. Mircea Dinescu, who gave an interview in Libération, is confined in what amounts to house arrest as is the second poet, Dan Desliu, who wrote an open letter to the West. Desliu also spent several months in a psychiatric hospital. [Gilles Schiller, "Roumanie: Ceausescu intensifie le harcèlement des opposants", Libération, 14 juillet 1989.] Earlier, in 1987, a group of Romanian dissidents who were interviewed by French television in Romania, criticized Romania's leaders and were subsequently arrested. ["Rumania Said to Bar Dissidents From Visitors", The New York Times, 17 December 1987.] An article in The New York Times, dated 6 August 1988, describes the treatment given a Romanian citizen working for the United Nations. Professor Mazilu was detained by the Romanian authorities and prevented from travelling abroad to carry out his duties because his report on abuses against young people, which was to have been submitted to the United Nations subcommittee on human rights, meeting in Geneva, allegedly contained criticism of Romania. [Paul Lewis, "U.S. Protests Rumanian Detention of U.N. Official", The New York Times, 6 August 1988.] The article also mentions the case of Liviu Bora, director of the Institute of Disarmament Research at the United Nations, who was detained in Romania for two years by the authorities. [Ibid.] The Amnesty International publication mentioned above states that an Orthodox priest, Father Alexandru Pop, sent an open letter to Radio Free Europe in March 1986 and was subsequently expelled from the Romanian priesthood and then pressured into emigrating. [Romania: Human Rights Violations, p. 26.]