7.  The facts of the case, as submitted by the parties, are similar to those in Association “21 December 1989” and Others v. Romania (nos. 33810/07 and 18817/08, §§ 12-41, 24 May 2011). They have the same historical context and relate to the same domestic criminal proceedings. They can be summarised as follows: 8.  On 17 December 1989, following demonstrations against the Government and on the orders of President Nicolae Ceauşescu, military operations were conducted in Timișoara and, over the following days, in other towns, including Bucharest, Reșița and Braşov. These operations caused many civilian deaths and casualties.
According to a document of 5 June 2008, issued by the military prosecutor’s office at the High Court of Cassation and Justice, “more than 1,200 people died, more than 5,000 people were injured and several thousand people were unlawfully deprived of their liberty and subjected to ill treatment”, in Bucharest, Timişoara, Reşiţa, Buzău, Constanţa, Craiova, Brăila, Oradea, Cluj, Braşov, Târgu Mureş, Sibiu and other towns in Romania. In addition, it appears from Ministry of Defence documents, declassified by Government decision no. 94/2010 of 10 February 2010, that thousands of servicemen, equipped with combat tanks and other armed vehicles, were deployed in Bucharest and other cities. During the period of 17 to 30 December 1989 they used considerable quantities of ammunition against the demonstrators. 9.  The applicants are people whose relatives were shot and killed in the events which took place between 17 and 30 December in Bucharest, except for the applicant in application no. 45779/14, whose husband was killed in Reșița and the applicant in application no. 24127/14, whose son was killed in Braşov. 10.  In 1990, military prosecutors in Bucharest, Timişoara, Oradea, Constanţa, Craiova, Bacău, Târgu Mureş and Cluj opened investigations into the use of force and the unlawful deprivation of liberty of the participants in demonstrations in the final days of December 1989. To date, the main criminal investigation into the use of violence, particularly against civilian demonstrators, both prior to and following the overthrow of Nicolae Ceauşescu, has been contained in file no. 97/P/1990 (current number 11/P/2014). The most important procedural steps undertaken between 1990 and 2009 were summarised in Association “21 December 1989” and Others (cited above, §§ 12-41). Subsequent developments are described below. 11.  On 18 October 2010 the military prosecutor’s office at the High Court of Cassation and Justice decided not to institute criminal proceedings with regard to the acts committed by the military, finding that the applicants’ complaints were partly statute-barred and partly ill-founded. The investigation into crimes committed by civilians, members of the Patriotic Guards, militia members and prison staff was severed from the case file and jurisdiction was relinquished in favour of the prosecuting authorities at the High Court of Cassation and Justice. 12.  On 15 April 2011 the chief prosecutor at the military prosecutor’s office set aside the decision of 18 October 2010 on the grounds that the investigation had not yet been finalised and that not all the victims and perpetrators had been identified. 13.  On 18 April 2011 the military prosecutor’s office relinquished jurisdiction in favour of the prosecutor’s office at the High Court of Cassation and Justice on the grounds that the investigation concerned both civilians and military personnel. 14.  On 9 March 2012 – after classified material in the criminal investigation file had been opened to the public in 2010 – the case was re-registered with a view to an investigation in the light of the newly available information. 15.  In February 2014, after the entry into force of the new Code of Criminal Procedure, jurisdiction was again relinquished in favour of the military prosecuting authorities and the file was registered under the domestic case file no. 11/P/2014. 16.  By an ordinance of 14 October 2015, the prosecuting authorities at the High Court of Cassation and Justice discontinued the proceedings in relation to case file no. 11/P/2014. The parties have not submitted any information on whether there was an appeal against that decision.