Nicolae Ceaușescu the country in the three days since the Ceaușescus fled Bucharest. Similarly, Victor Stănculescu, who had been defense minister before going over to the revolution, said in 2009 that the alternative would have been seeing the Ceaușescus lynched on the streets of Bucharest. The Ceaușescus were the last people to be executed in Romania before the abolition of capital punishment on 7 January 1990. Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu were originally buried in simple graves at Ghencea Cemetery in Bucharest, on opposite sides of a path; their graves were often decorated with flowers and symbols of communist rule. In April 2007,
Vatra Dornei Casino to the statements of Ioan Corneţchi, former mayor of Vatra Dornei between 1986–1989, Dictator Nicolae Ceausescu approved the remake of the Casino in 1987. The work had to be completed within three years, and host the Ceausescu’s 1990 New Year Celebration, which never occurred due to the Romanian Revolution. After the country fell into economic paralysis due to the 1989 Revolution, the interior of the casino was pillaged. According to local records, after the first three months of the fall of communism, all chandeliers were stolen, copper tubs and plumbing was taken, the interior was stripped of metal, the Carrara